The Shield Shall decide
by Samantha Kutti
Summary: This is the story of how one little girl with a big secret and a bigger heart, changes the Slytherin prince ( The Evil dragon, The ferret, whatever you may know him as), and the course of the war. She is now leaving her family behind, join her as she tells you why has to leave.
1. Chapter 1

_Hey everyone, This is my first story ever. I have an outline of where my story will go in the next few chapters, and am hoping y'all will enjoy reading this story as much as I did writing it. _

_Disclaimer: All of the characters and Cannon scenes belong to J. , except My OCs. Any resemblance to any fictional or non fictional character is purely coincidental. _

_Here you go,..._

**Chapter-1 Escapade**

A woman with long strawberry blonde hair that reached almost mid thighs, stood at the door hesitantly, questioning her rash decision to leave - Why did she decide to leave? Could she leave her whole life, Family, and Friends behind? No, she had to leave, if only for a while, she had to. She needed a break, a retreat from her complicated life.

She traced the design on her locket out of habit and made up her mind. She wanted… No, needed this vacation from all the drama. So, with one final glance at the room, she lifted her bags and started walking. As soon as she reached a deserted alley, making sure all her belongings were secure, she took an old soda can from her pocket and checked the time on her watch and thought '11:29:30 just on time, thank merlin'. The can started to become warm, and within a few seconds she felt a tugging sensation at her navel and vanished on the spot, reappearing in a bathroom stall which read ' OUT OF ORDER'. Once again making sure she had all her belongings and her wand, she stepped out of the bathroom, into the airport.

A man, with medium length blonde hair, grey eyes that reminded her of a stormy sky, wearing a designer suit approached her and gestured her to follow. Once they had privacy, he gave her a giant hug, "Are you sure you want to leave?" he asked, "Yes drake, am sure" "alright, just as long as you're sure. You do know how difficult it is going to be to hide this from them, don't you?" "Of course dear drakeypoo, of course" she smirked. "Oh Ann, am going to miss you, we all will" he sighed, "Take care darling, I love you, am always a floo call away, remember that" she said. They were interrupted when Ann heard someone announcing that they were ready for the first class passengers to board. Anna collected her belongings and laughed "Well Draco, that's my cue to leave. I still don't understand why you had to book me a first class ticket. Economy would have been just fine". "I still don't understand why you couldn't use a portkey or why you refuse to use the summer mansion in Paris for your vacation instead" Draco said in a high pitched girly voice trying to imitate her and lighten the mood. "Bye Draco" She said kissing his cheek and going to the nearby security check-point. Draco waved, "Bye Annie" and went away as fast as his legs could carry him, afraid he would petrify her and take her back home or that he would cry like a baby in a stupid muggle place. He apparated to his home, Malfoy manor, and went into the library, sitting in his chair, poured himself a glass of fire whiskey and let the tears flow freely on to his pale cheeks. He would miss her would be the understatement of the century. Merlin's beard, she was his best friend, the only person who understood what he was going through. She protected him during the war, and the only reason he realized the path his life was taking. The only one who had faith in him, faith that he will do what is right in the end. And he did what was right, for her, for himself and also because he believed in himself as at last there was someone who understood him, his decisions and his flaws and yet believed in him. He would have laughed if a few years ago someone told him he would join the side of the light, or that he would stand up to his father. He was happy now with the life he now had, his girlfriend, mother and home, which reminded him that it was time to leave for work.

...At the airport,

Ann smiled at the flight attendant who welcomed her onto the flight and showed her to her seat. It was spacious and on the side table there were some chocolates and fake perfumed lilies, there were newspapers lying neatly beside it and a menu. 'Well this is different, it almost feels like visiting a restaurant' she thought as the attendant placed her backpack in the overhead compartment and showed her the facilities and luxuries that her ticket bought her. This was definitely different from the last time she travelled by plane. She smiled softly as she remembered that time...

...a time when she didn't know what she was getting into, yet eager to obey her mother's wish, a time when she was young, her first time on a plane, when she was merely a child, 7years old, 4 feet 2 inches tall (which she took pride in as she was taller than most people her age), nervously tracing the patterns on her locket and worrying if the charm her mother placed would work. Fidgeting with her hair and trying to smile as the officer at the security checkpoint looked at her passport.

At last the Frenchman smiled at her and said "bien vous pouvez aller, Mlle. Arianna Oralia Thomas"


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey everyone, I am soooo glad I got 8 views. Although no reviews have been posted yet (Is it too early for reviews? IDK), all reviews would be welcome (including constructive criticism), because I strongly believe everyone has a right to their own opinions. I know my writing style is not refined, but I really do love the plot of this story. It has lots of secrets, (Virtual cookie to anyone who guesses the secrets from the hints I am leaving)_

_Disclaimer: All of the characters and Cannon scenes belong to J. K. Rowling, except My OCs. Any resemblance to any fictional or non-fictional character is purely coincidental._

Chapter 2: Arianne introduction:

Hello everyone, I am Arianne Oralia Thomas, I have many nicknames like Ann, Annie, Ari, Ria, and my favorite Lia (mother calls me lia), born on 26th September 1979,Iam 4 years old, though mother says I have the mental age of a 9 year old. She is the most awesome mother in the whole wide world.

I know Latin, French, and English; Right now I am learning Ancient runes and arithmancy. Mother says it's necessary to learn. I am to train for something, Even i don't know what exactly, and learn everything I can. I love reading though, and learning new things, so I don't mind all this training and learning. We live in a small village just at the edge of a forest in France, with a population of 56 people, 57 if you count baby John, my friend Elliot's new baby brother who, mum says, will get born today. You see, my mother Maricel Rossa Thomas is special. She is a witch and a true seer. This is our secret, which mother made me promise never to reveal to anyone (not even my friend Elliot). I am a witch too, and don't even think of saying _witch_ is a bad word, it's a good word, because my mother is a good person. As the village doctor and teacher she helps anyone who needs help with anything.

I love my village which is called Le' ciel, true to its name is a very peaceful, merry place which reminds you of heaven on earth. Everyone lives like a big family. Every day, I wake up early in the morning, Bathe, get ready, eat breakfast and go to school, which is held under the great oak tree, in front of the small building which is our town hospital. Elliot's uncle Sean teaches us French for an hour, then mother teaches us Mathematics (Counting, addition, etc.,), after which we all get to play all morning. There is me, Elliot, John, Franc, and little Gabrielle who come to school. Every afternoon one or the other family brings cheese, bread, and some variety of fruit. All of us ate together and then we could go home. My house was just besides the hospital building, and partially hidden by trees, and hidden here not visible to anyone except my mother and me, is a large shed where mother and I practice magic or wandless magic to be precise.

Wandless magic may seem difficult if you try to master it after you learn magic with a wand and sometimes difficult even if you learn it from childhood, but my mother and I come from an ancient bloodline that has been practicing wandless magic for centuries. Magic is always easy for me, almost like making a wish, but in Latin. Ancient Latin is my mother tongue. But mother always says, with great power comes great responsibility. She says love is the greatest magic. She must know, because she is a true seer as i told u, she sees these visions or prophecies, that always come true, no matter what you do to try to avoid it. I have a few special tricks up my sleeve too, one of them is my memory, I have a photographic memory, I remember everything that happened in my life. Well, not everything, I don't remember anything about my father. My mother rarely speaks about him. All she says is I will meet him one day when I am ready. Some days, I sit under the oak tree near my house, trying to remember my father; I remember everything in my life…

I remember my mother holds me in her arms and sings a soft lullaby to me, tells me how beautiful I look. "Lia, my darling, you are the most beautiful girl in the world, So Regal, just like your father. You have your father's nose, and his smile. Oh my darling Lia! How I wish your father was here to see his lovely daughter". I remember her eyes full of tears whenever she spoke of my father.

I remember the day death eaters invaded our old village; it was the last community of witches and wizards, who practiced wandless magic. My mother had a vision of this just a few hours before the attack, and pleaded with our Elders to save our people. The elders thought my mother was trying to mislead the people in the village and refused to help her. She then went to each and every house, knocked each and every door, but nobody gave heed. The elders had made a deal with someone named Voldemort who was the leader of the death eaters (weird name if you ask me), and he said he would leave our village in peace because it consisted of the purest, most ancient bloodlines in the history of magic. Nobody was worried about my mother's vision.

I remember when, with just under an hour to spare, my mother packed all our belongings into her Magic bag (believe me, it's no joking matter to pack a whole house full of belongings , a huge house in that, into one small bag in a bit more than half-an-hour. Mother said she will teach me how to make one when i grow older), then by the time we could walk to the edge of our magical boundary, the death-eaters were upon our village. My mother turned to look back at our village and the sight makes me scared even to this day. Our whole village looked like giant firewood stove. Almost all rooftops were on fire. Some of the people were running trying to get to the borders, but the masked people struck them down before they could walk a few steps. Many others were just waking up from their sleeps, finding their house on fire, It makes me cry to think of all those people, waking up to their burning demise. My mother hid on top of a huge bushy tree and watched the masked people hurt so many. Then it was silent, no pleas for mercy, no screaming for help, no maniacal laughter. Just painful silence!

I remember mother waiting silently in the terrifying silence, Mother cast some charms on me, placed me securely on that tree along with her magical bag, kissed my head and whispered "Mommy loves you Lia, Always remember that. Just in case the danger has not passed, I know you will remember me, this moment, loving someone is the greatest magic ever. Be good and be safe my dear Arianne" Then she called out a bit louder "Minty!" A small person wearing green robes the size of a Dress shirt, appeared out of thin air, As soon as she saw mother, Minty squealed and hugged her, then noticing the destruction around us she became silent, her big eyes were filled with sadness. That's when she noticed me, and gasped softly, "Is th…this?" Minty questioned, to which my mother nodded yes and said "Take care of my baby Lia for me, while I go and check to see if there are any who can be saved. If I do not come back before morning, take her to your master and tell him he will find the proof he requires in the bag. Promise me Minty! Promise me you will do this for me!". Minty nodded with tears in her eyes and said "of course mistress! Minty takes good care of baby Lia. Minty promises. Minty missed you mistress Rossa", "I missed you too minty". With that, mother leapt from the tree and entered the border of our once beautiful village once more, searching, I think, for any survivors. After what seemed like a long long time, she came back with a man floating before her, and shouted for Minty to help her with the only survivor she could find. Mother laid the man on a makeshift bed she made, and started healing the man, desperately trying to save him. With a loud gasp the man opened his eyes, and with short, raspy breaths he tried to hold onto his life. Mother frantically tried to save him, muttering spells under her breath, but with a few final words "we should have believed", he breathed his final breath.

I remember mother and minty burying the man near his house. That whole night, with me tied safely to her waist, mother spent making grave markers in front of each house, writing out the names of all who lived in that house. Minty brought armful of flowers from outside the border to lay by each house. At last, as the sun was rising, they finished the last marker. Mother placed charms around the village, to once again protect it from muggles. Not from masked evil men, or from any evil force, because you see, there was nobody left in the village to protect. All of them were gone. All that remained was blackened remains of houses, the sad ruins of our home.

I remember Misty pleading with my mother to return with her. But mother refused and made her promise never to speak of us or of what happened last night to her master or anyone. With a sad sigh, Misty hugged my mother and me, and disappeared into thin air with a 'crack' noise. After that my mother apparated us to the village we now call Le' ciel. The people welcomed us with open arms, into their village and also into their hearts. I may not know my father, or have relatives, but I have a family. A family with 57 people, my village, Le' ciel,

_My second chapter! How is it? Yayy or nay? Please comment and let me know. Once again, this is my first ever fanfiction. So please review. Favorite it if you like the story and want to read more chapters as I write them._

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	3. Chapter 3

_Hey everyone, my 3__rd__ chapter! Pls review! This is my first fanfiction story and any review would be welcome (including constructive criticism), because I strongly believe everyone has a right to their own opinions. I know my writing style is not refined, but I really do love the plot of this story. It has lots of secrets, (Virtual cookie to anyone who guesses the secrets from the hints I am leaving)_

_Disclaimer: All of the characters and Cannon scenes belong to J. K. Rowling, except My OCs. Any resemblance to any fictional or non-fictional character is purely coincidental._

Chapter 3

Today as soon as i wake up, i jump up on my small bed and do a happy dance because it's my 7th birthday. Mom comes in and laughs and joins me, singing some silly song. After that, I go and brush my teeth, take a bath , and eat breakfast. After that, mom and I sit on the couch and she gives me my gifts. She got me a beautiful aqua green dress that came to my knees and the bodice was dark grey with blue embroidery. It was the most amazing dress in the whole world. She also gave me a grey and black cloak. Then she gave me a big rectangular box which had a beautiful silver necklace set with sapphires and matching earrings, it also had a few charms for my charm bracelet. I gave mom a big hug, she took out something from her pocket and said "Lia, I have one more gift for you, this was your Grand'Mere's, she gave this to me, now am giving it to you. It has been in our family since a very long time" fastening around my neck a silver chain, with a round locket which had a phoenix carved around a large emerald on one side. As soon as it touched my skin it glowed faintly and a design of a shield appeared on the other side of the locket.

I looked at the locket in awe, and i think i heard my mom say "Shield, Ah! My baby girl! You really are different, powerful!"

But when I asked her what she meant by me being different, she gasped in surprise and said, "I know for sure that I didn't say that out loud. Why Lia, I believe you are a natural Legilimens. Have you been practicing it? We haven't even started studying about it. But be careful darling, it's not polite to misuse such a gift". I asked what Legilimens was and she explained to me that it is the art of reading someone's mind, "You are different Lia, I don't know the meaning of the shield appearing on that locket, but I do know that it means you are powerful. Be careful to whom you reveal your secrets. I will try to find out the meaning of it. I think I heard something about a prophecy regarding a shield, but am not sure. Till then, be careful darling."

After I put away all my gifts, except my chain which was now around my neck, in my room, I went to play with my best friends Eli and Gabby. We played all day near the forest, running around chasing each other, climbing trees, and also playing hide-and-go-seek. We were exhausted by the time the sun was setting and went to my house. Elliot's parents, Uncle Sean, and Gaby's parents were already there. As soon as we all entered, they brought out the cake. I cut the cake; they all sang a birthday song for me. Elliot's parents, aunt Jane (Janette) and Uncle Eddy (Edmond) bought me black shoes and gloves. Uncle Sean gave me Chinese, Greek, and Spanish language books, a fairy tales book, and a journal. Gaby's parents got me a beautiful Blue hat to match the dress mom gave, and Gabby, Little John and Elli made me a birthday card. All of us children ate big slices of cake. After dinner Gabby left with her parents, and Elli's brother John fell asleep on Uncle Sean's shoulder. Mom and Aunt Jane were cleaning up with uncle Eddy's help and Elliot says she has a gift for me, and gives me a bracelet, on it are beads spelling out our names, she said aunt Jane helped her make it. "I love it Elli, it's so pretty" I say hugging her and we both start crying because her family was going off to Britain in 2 weeks. We promise to always write to each other wherever we are.

I don't remember falling asleep, but the next day I wake up in my room, hearing a loud crash from somewhere in the house. I rush to see what is wrong. It's still a bit dark outside so it's really early in the morning. As I walk into the kitchen, I see mom standing there with a broken bowl at her feet, her eyes glazed over as if she is having a vision of the future. I try calling her but she doesn't move. The expression on her face frightens me so I try to use legilimens on mom, although I know it's wrong, because whenever mom has a vision, if I call her, she notices. I concentrate on knowing the vision she is having, and I see something, its blurry at first, but finally I can see clearly what mom's seeing.

_Vision:_

_Mom is sitting at the kitchen counter, a letter in her hand, It reads: "Rossa Esmeralda, I see you go by Maricel Thomas nowadays, did you think I won't be able to find you if you changed your last name? Come and meet me at the old well in the forest within 48 hours. Otherwise your lovely Le' ciel will become another graveyard just like your mother's house and your old village. I have hunted so many years for you and this time you cannot escape. Signed- FG" Then I see mom going into forest, near the old well where man with a scary face with lots of scars is waiting. He laughs at her and says "Esmeralda I have been waiting for this moment for so long. At last the one who escaped me all these years dies in my hands. Pity you don't have a family to mourn for you. Oh that's right, I killed them all didn't I?" and he jumps on mom with his huge pointy teeth at ready, I see blood and everything becomes red, and then black._

_Vision ends._

Mom gasps, and her face was as pale as cotton, then clutches her heart and sobs. I call out to her, and when she notices me, she rushes up to me, takes me into her arms and starts crying and after a while starts rocking back and forth, but when I ask her who the scary man in her vision is, she wipes her tears, and patting my head, says "don't you worry mon petit. I will take care of that problem. You will be ok, we will be ok Lia. Now why don't you start reading that new charms book I got you, I have some work in the hospital. I will be back by evening. Remember to eat something, and don't practice any spells till I return", she kissed my forehead and went out. I was scared beyond anything, but I sat down at the desk in my room, and opened the charm book trying to see if there was any spell that will help mom escape from that man.

Late in the evening, mom returns home carrying a bulky envelope which she puts away in her room, and starts making dinner. The next day, she takes me to the market and buys me lots of new dresses and a few gloves, shoes, Hats and other accessories. After returning home, we started practicing spells and learning some defensive spells. For the next week, our schedule consisted of waking up, eating, reading from books, and practicing spells, and going to sleep exhausted.

All through the training, I kept wondering why mom was acting different, and why the intensive training, out of the blue. One day I asked her this question, She was hesitant at first, but as I kept pressing her for an answer, she answered "The man you saw in my vision is a very evil man Lia, he killed your grandmother and aunt, but I escaped from him and he has been hunting for me from then, and this time i know he will kill me. So you are leaving with Uncle Eddy and Aunt Jane. They will take you to Britain next week. The day after you reach, someone will come to take you to your father. He and his family are wizards and witches as well, but unlike us they use only wands. You will also go to school once you are of age. Be careful that when you stay with them, never to forget to do what is right, be brave and don't forget the power of love. Also remember that with power also comes responsibility, never betray your friends but most importantly, never betray your conscience. Even if you stay in midst of the most evil people, never let it taint your heart my dear. Will you promise to do this my dear?" Against all my protests, she was adamant that her death is certain. I didn't want to leave her. Although all my life, I wondered about my father, I didn't want that wish at such a price.

Angry at her for sending me away, and at whatever forces run the universe, I stormed out of the training shed and sat at the window in my room. I let my tears fall freely, this can't be happening, I love my mom and am as stubborn as her I will not leave. I tried to think how to get out of this trouble. I can't believe she is shipping me off to Britain. All of a sudden, I remembered one incident when I was 5, I was crying because I got lost in the forest while playing, and it took hours before mom found me, that day, she promised that whatever the situation she will never let us be separated, that she will try with everything she has to make sure we are together and safe. She promised if such a day should come, I should know that she has exhausted every solution. This made me realize that my mom who loved me more than anything, and never broke her promise come what may, who was so much more intelligent than me and knew far more spells than me, might have tried to solve this problem without sending me away. I was ashamed of myself for adding to my mother's grief. I rushed out of my room to find mom clutching a picture of mine and crying. Iran to her and hugged her, promising to follow her wishes and go to Britain and be on my best behavior, for her. That day mom and I spent most of the night talking and her telling me stories about Grandmother and Aunt Es. The next few days passed by with us training and then talking all night long and such. Finally, 2 days before I was to leave with Elli to Britain, Mom and I started packing up my stuff. Mom put all my muggle clothes, books and such tuff into a big bag, and then she put all her magical books collection, any potions we had at home (Which she labeled and wrote instructions on), her flying broom, my jewelry and other magical knickknacks that she thought I would need.

After packing, we spent the rest of the day clearing all traces of magic from the house. Then mom gave me a bulky envelope (The same one she brought home the day she had that vision) which contained papers that I had to show the officers at the airport, and some muggle money, just in case of emergencies. She also gave me another package which she asked me to give father when I meet him.

Our final day together, I spent on the living room couch, hugging my mom tightly, listening to her sing. She would keep stopping randomly to tell me to remember her as a brave happy woman, to stay strong, or reminding me some silly day in our lives. I didn't sleep that day, neither did mom. We didn't want the next day to come, but as they say: Time passes by quickly when you want it to slow down. The next day came, early in the morning, I got dressed in some comfortable clothes, with mothers chain around my neck from which the phoenix shield locket and mom's ring hung. I wore my charm bracelet, slung the magic bag ( a magical undetectable extension charm which mom taught me) containing all my magic things, then putting on my travelling cloak, I stood at my door, looking for the last time ever at my mother (She didn't want to come to the airport, said she wouldn't be able to let me go, but also maybe because she received that letter the other day). She waved at me from the front door till our car left sight. At the airport, I stood in line along with Elli, and john, and Aunt Jane, When it was my turn, I handed the tall and stern looking officer sitting behind a desk my papers and passport, and stood there nervously tracing the patterns on my locket, worrying if the charm mom placed on my papers and passport would work. I stood fidgeting with my hair and trying to smile as the officer at the security checkpoint looked at my passport. At last the Frenchman smiled at her and said "bien vous pouvez aller, Mlle. Arianna Oralia Thomas".

_So, hope you liked the chapter. Eeeep! Arianne is goingto meet her father! Hmmm.. wonder who he is?_

_Read on to find out. Will be updating the next chapter soon!_


	4. Chapter 4

_Hey , so I got a few messages saying my story was crap and not worth reading, I didnt feel like writing the story anymore, but from encouragement from my friend, I decided to write two or three more chapters, maybe then It will get interesting? IDK! If after 3 more chapters you still feel that this story is bad, then I will take it down? I don't want to give up on this story so early. I kind of like its plot. So here it goes. And please tell me what you think of this story._

_Disclaimer: All characters (except my OCs) belong to J. ._

_Almost my entire story is in Arianne's POV, if otherwise, I will specify._

**Chapter 4 –MEETING FAMILY? :**

I arrived in London that evening, hired two taxi cars to fit our entire luggage and went to Elli's new home in surrey. It was a pretty cottage near Surrey, with a small garden out front, three bedrooms and a small dining room/parlor. Uncle Eddy and Aunt Jane were in the white and red master bedroom; Uncle Sean and little John were sharing a grey and green bedroom which had bunk beds. I was staying in Elli's room, which was a cute baby pink and white. While Uncle Sean and Uncle Eddy brought all our bags inside and went out to shop for food, Aunt Jane made us kids take a bath, change into clean clothes while she started setting up the kitchen for cooking. In a few hours the kitchen looked perfect, and we were helping her put away things, when Uncle Sean &amp; Eddy returned loaded with groceries. They let us kids, explore the house and play, whilst dinner was cooking, so John and Elliot started running around the house playing tag.

I went into Elli's room and collapsed on the floor crying my heart out, letting all the unshed tears flow. The only thing I could think about was that she may be dead by now. That man might have killed her. What kind of a person was I? Going off to live in London, when she was getting killed by a horrible man? I wish I could go back, to protect her. She has been there for me always. My teacher, my Trainer, my friend, my confidante, my mother and my world. I missed her and I couldn't do anything about it but cry, and that is exactly what I did, I cried for hours and hours, till I couldn't cry any more. Later Aunt Jane came to call us to dinner and saw me in this state, So she brought and fed me some food and put me in bed, where I cried some more and fell asleep.

That night I dreamed I was in a grand house, with many beautiful decorations, there, my mother stood, dressed in the most beautiful pale pink dress, along with another woman who appeared to be very elegant, almost like a queen. I ran up to my mom and hugged her and started crying. Mom hugged me back and started petting my head and said "Lia my darling, mon petit', don't cry. Shhh! It's all going to be alright. I will always be with you, in your heart, I am alive. Hush darling, I love you."

I knew this was a dream, but I felt relieved sitting near mom, hugging her. I asked her never to leave me. Suddenly the elegant woman cleared her throat and looked at mom, mom started talking to me hurriedly, she wanted me to take care of myself, and she said I had to be careful when I stay with my father, never reveal to them that I am anything different. The people that their family associated with were dangerous people, who sought power, who wanted to destroy muggles. She told me these people were power hungry, and that I would grow up to become a powerful witch. She said she was sent to me to warn me to choose the side I was on carefully as that would set the course for how the future played out." Look into people's hearts before you judge them or trust them Lia. Remember what I told you, choosing the light does not mean you abandon those who are in the dark. Rather, it means bringing those whom you love to the light, however deep they may be trapped in the dark. I know you will fulfill the prophecy mon trognon. I need to leave darling, my time with you is coming to end. Arianne, come child meet the woman you were named after, Arianne Jean Esmeralda, your grandmother." She said, leading me to the elegant woman, who bent down and hugged me. I had always heard mom tell me about my grandmother, her beauty, grace and compassion. She was more beautiful than mom described her to be. She looked not a day older than 30, with the loveliest face, honey brown eyes, Brown wavy hair that was tied up in a flower bun. She wore a bright yellowish gold dress, which made her appear even more like a queen.

"Arianne Oralia, I am so glad I meet my granddaughter at last. My! You look very pretty, just like your mother and aunt. You have a pure heart my child, and a great destiny. Your mother and I will be looking out for you. This ring is my birthday present to you. We must leave now, be at peace, stay strong and enjoy life ma fifille." And then, they left in a blink, and I woke up with a start and wondered about the dream I had. I thought it was a dream, till I saw the red and blue stone ring on my finger. So this wasn't a dream? Mother and grandmother were here to see me? But Grandmere was dead a long while before I was born. Does that mean, mother is d… dead? Thinking this made me want to cry, but I remembered mom asked me to stay strong. I will stay strong, I will remember the happy memories of mom nothing else. Mother seemed so happy, beautiful and radiant now unlike when she was worried about that vision. She was safe with grandmere. She is here in my heart, and is looking over me. She wouldn't want me to cry and be sad. I will be a brave and good girl for her." And fell asleep peacefully after many sleepless nights.

The next day the bigger luggage like furniture arrived and we started unpacking and arranging things in the cottage. While uncle Sean, Uncle Eddy and aunt Jane lifted, pushed and arranged the bigger things like tables, beds, and cupboards, Elli and I helped with the smaller stuff like sweeping, dusting, and moving smaller things like chairs. Later in the week Elli and I helped Aunt Jane with the small garden at the front of the house, de-weeding and clearing it so we could start planting new seeds. The day after we finished clearing the garden, we went to the market to look for saplings and seeds. We selected a nice variety of flower saplings and seeds, and vegetable seeds and got home and started planting them.

The next day, Elli and me were watering the plants, when a big black car, with black tinted windows stopped in front of the cottage. A tall man with long black hair, pale skin, wearing a Black coat, black trousers, black shirt and a serious expression got down from the car and approaches us and looking directly at me (curiously) says "I assume one you young ladies is Ms. Arianne Oralia Thomas?" and Elli points at me and runs inside to call Aunt Jane. Before Aunt Jane comes, I go up to him and ask him if he is my father. He looks at me gravely and says he is not my father, but is here to take me to him. Before I could ask him who he is, Aunt Jane comes out the front door, introduces herself and gestures for me to go inside. I went inside, and seeing Elli already at the window, I go up to her and we both tried to see the strange man talking to Aunt Jane. After discussing for a while, the man takes out some papers from his coat pocket and showed them to Aunt Jane, which she read carefully. Finally she welcomed the man inside the house, and told me that he was here to take me to my father, and asked me to get ready and asked Ell to help me pack my stuff.

We rushed upstairs and started putting all my clothes back into my travel bags. The bag, which mother gave me for my birthday was as usual already across my shoulders, as I never took off that bag, except for when I was sleeping. Even then it was tucked safely under my pillow. We dragged the travel bag all the way to the top of the stairs, when Elli and I hugged, knowing we may not see each other as often. Ell started sobbing and hugged me tighter, and then we dragged my bag to the door where the black haired man was standing. He took the bag from me and said he will give me a few moments with my friends and went to wait beside the car. Aunt Jane wished me good luck with my life, hugged me and asked me to be a good girl. After hugging Ell for one last time, I went and sat in the car and waved to them till we were out of sight.

The journey seemed to take a while, taking us from surrey, through streets with neat rows of bigger buildings through more scenic places in London and then, through streets with much bigger buildings which appeared more like mini castles. I was curious and asked the man beside me "where are we going? Does my father live in a mini castle? What is your name? When will we reach?" he looked at me with the same serious expression and told me that his name is Severus Snape, he is a family friend, we were going to my father's house, which will take us at least 20 minutes more to reach. I nodded and returned to looking out of the window again. Severus Snape seemed strange to me, he never even smiled at me, but I remembered what mom told me in my dream and many times during my childhood and decided I wouldn't judge him as a bad man in just one meeting. While I was thinking all this, I didn't even notice when we stopped, but we were there in front of the biggest, grandest building I had ever seen till my car door was opened and Mr. Severus snape helped me get out of the car. We stepped into the house, into a long room, with green and silver decorations. Each and every room I saw looked expensively decorated yet elegant. Mr. Snape asked me to wait in a huge room with several green velvet couches while he informed my father that I arrived.

While I was waiting there, I started looking around the room with the walls painted a dark green(almost looked like black) color on which hung magical pictures and portraits. The room decorated in green, silver and black color pattern. A ginormous chandelier hung above the room. As I was inspecting a room, I bumped into someone, "OW!" and we both fell to the floor. I look up to see a tall, dark skinned boy around my age, He was fuming that I bumped into him and started shouting. Although I apologized, he was still angry and I didn't know what to say. Seeing me on the verge of tears, the boy came up to me, and said it was ok and asked me my name and what I was doing here. I introduced myself and he introduced himself as" Blaise Zabini"

_So that was chapter four, where shemeets the potions professor and Blaise, what happens next? Read on to find out._


	5. Chapter 5

Yayyyy for my first reviewer Suganya! Thank And also I got more than 100 views! OMG!

So without further ado, here's the next chapter for you!

Disclaimer: All characters and the HP world (Except my OCs and my story line) belong to J.K. Rowling.

…"Blaise Zabini"

I smile and introduce myself "Arianne Thomas". He doesn't smile back; instead he just nods and walks over to where my bags are and looks at them, turns and says "Who is this?" I thought he is asking me until I notice he is looking at something/someone behind. I turn to look and see that someone is another boy, around my age, with blonde hair that was slicked back with gel, with grey eyes that had a glint of mischief and his face looked so cute and happy, that I couldn't help smiling myself. He walks over to me and shakes my hand and introduces himself "Hello. I am Draco. What is your name?" I quickly introduce myself as Arianne. "Arianne? Can I call u Ari?" I nod. With a big grin on his face, he invites me to play with him.

"Not now Draco, why don't we go to the library and you and Blaise can finish your essay which I assigned you" Mr. Severus said. 'When did he come into the room. I didn't even notice', He took Draco and Blaise out of the room, just as four people, one woman and three men, entered the room. 'Is one of them my father?' I thought. One man had black hair which was straight and almost reached his shoulders, He had brown eyes that were inspecting, scrutinizing everything in the room, after which he started looking at me as if trying to figure out everything he could about me and he had a stick in his hand, which I suppose is a wand and was standing tensely as if ready to hurt me if I made one wrong move. The other man had Blonde hair like Draco's, in fact; he looked exactly like Draco, but older and taller and without the happiness. He was very serious looking, more than any man I ever saw, even Mr. Severus. He looked at me disapprovingly, and his glare made me cower into the wall even more and made me feel as if I had done something despicable. The last man was a bit older than the other two men, He had white/blonde hair, which reached well past his shoulders and was pulled back and slicked. He had kind grey eyes, and he gave me a small hopeful smile. He walked with a slight limp which was almost unnoticeable if you didn't look closely as he walked using a walking cane (although he wasn't as old as to use one). Then lastly the woman entered, she looked very pretty, she had long black hair, and wore a green dress which looked like it was made for a princess, she had no expression whatsoever on her face, neither kind nor angry. Her hair was braided intricately and there was a beautiful green clip in her hair. She held her hands tightly in front of her and walked very gracefully almost like gliding through air.

They approached where I was standing and asked me to sit down. They all sat down on the couch in front of my chair, except the man with black hair, who stood behind their couch. The older man was about to say something, when the other blonde man interrupts him and introduces himself as Lucius Malfoy, "Ms. Thomas, we received the letter your mother sent, and sent for you as soon as we could. Now your mother said she would be sending another letter with you, do you have it with you?" he asked. I nodded and took out the envelope mother gave me and held it out for the black haired man, who took it hesitantly and started doing some spells on it with his wand. He then took it and gave it to Lucius Malfoy, who instantly opened the envelope, which contained a letter and a few magical photos, and a locket, mother's locket that she never took off. The older man took the contents of the envelope, and he and Mr. Lucius started reading the letter. Once they were finished reading, they passed the letter to the other man, who once again put some spells on the letter and photographs, nodded at the others and passed them back to Mr. Lucius.

Although nervous, I gathered up the courage and asked him "Are you my father Monsieur Lucius?" He looked at me with the same disapproving look and said "No Ms. Thomas, I am most definitely not your father". "And it's Mr. Malfoy, not Mr. Lucius! Would have thought your 'mother' would have taught you at least how to address people" He spat. I shuddered and looked down at my hands which I was clutching tightly together in my lap, I was angry at him for speaking so about mom, but I was also very afraid of him.

"Now Ms. Thomas, Stand up and stand right here" Mr. Lu…Mr. Malfoy said, pointing to the middle of the room, "Don't worry child! Mr. Zmeyj here just has to run some tests to make sure what you and your mother are claiming, is in fact true." said the woman sternly, but I could detect just a hint of concern in her voice. But her face was back to being expressionless when I lifted my head to see if she really was concerned for me. Then although I was nervous and scared inside, I put on a brave face for mom and marched up to where Mr. Malfoy pointed and stood there with my head held high and waited for whatever tests Mr. Zmechj…something had to perform. Then the black haired man who apparently is Mr. Zmechj approached me, and pointing his wand at me, muttered some spells that I didn't recognize. Then a yellowish light came from his wand and hovered for a moment in the air, then it swirled around the room and the another light which was a bright pink shot out of his wand and hovered over my head before it faded, at which the three onlookers gasped, then another bluish light came out if the wand, which swirled around me and came to rest over someone's head.

The light hovered above the older man's head, which made everyone in the room release their breaths which they didn't realize they were holding in. The older man gave a sigh of relief, Mr. Malfoy gave a snort of indifference, and the Lady gave me a small smile. And I realized that maybe that man was my father.

Then Mr. Zmechj turned to Mr. Malfoy and made a slight bow, and said "It appears everything is in order Mr. Malfoy, I shall take my leave now" and turned and left the room.

"Well Narcissa, It appears she really is his daughter, now take her into the guest room, while her room is being prepared. I am leaving you the responsibility to tame her, don't know if she even knows any etiquette or manners and we can't have her spoil her father's reputation now, can we? Who knows what else her mother didn't teach her." He says and turns to me, nods and says "Hope you don't prove to be an embarrassment to either of us Arianne" and leaves the room. 'I don't know what his problem is, but at least my mother taught me not to be rude to people' I think and turn to my father, hoping to speak with him.

No such luck, as Narcissa puts a hand on my shoulder, and smiles apologetically and said "Not now Arianne, You will have an audience with your father soon, but you must get changed and settled into your room. Right now he has to go out with my husband Lucius on some business, but after dinner your father will speak with you." She said. As if on cue, my father rose, patted me on my head and left the room. Then Mrs. Malfoy led me out of the living room, and towards the stairs telling me an elf will get my belongings to my room when I was trying to lift them. We climbed to the first floor, which had long passageways to either side of its spacious landing. Each passageway had at least six rooms on either side. We took the left passageway and stopped in front of the fourth room on the right. The doors were made of dark wood and were carved with beautiful flower designs. We entered into the guest room, which had a soft baby pink colored wallpaper, white ceiling and a cream colored soft carpet. It had a dresser and chair to one side with two doors at either side of it, and a huge bed, bigger than my mom's bed back home, with pink and black embroidered beddings. All the furniture was dark brown almost black shade of wood. Mrs. Malfoy pointed out the two doors and said that the one on the right was a closet to put my clothes in, and the one on the left was the bathroom, she waved her wand and a black and purple dress, along with a black chain and shoes appeared on the bed, which were about my size. "The house elves will put your belongings in the closet. Why don't you take a bath, and put on these clothes. I will come back in around an hour or so, to let you settle in. Then maybe we can walk a while in the gardens?" she said. "Yes Mrs. Malfoy, Thank you." I replied, to which, "You don't have to call me that child, you can call me Narcissa. Now I think Dizy has already drawn hot water for you. I will leave you to get ready." She said and left after giving me a hug and kissing my cheek. She wasn't as bad as Lucius Malfoy I thought, and went to the bathroom to take a bath. Putting my bag (Which was always with me) on the small table like thing which had towels on it, I saw the tub was already filled with warm water, and also had bubbles of all colors floating in the tub. 'YEAH! I love bubble baths!' I eased myself into the tub, and felt relaxed, after a long and nervous ordeal. I lay in the tub for a while and then washed myself, dried my hair using the spell mom taught me, then picking up my bag and wrapped myself in a big white, fluffy towel went to the bed and put on the dress Narcissa left for me. I looked at myself in the mirror on the dresser, and saw that my hair was messy. Looking around, I pointed my baggage already put near the closet door, I grabbed my comb out of it and started combing my hair, I put on my bracelet, chain and ring and checked to see if I looked presentable. Satisfied with my look, I went and sat by the window. I saw Draco and Blaise playing outside on the grounds. I wonder if I am related to Blaise. Was he my half-brother? And how could Lucius Malfoy be Draco's father? He was so arrogant and rude, whereas Draco was very sweet and kind. Maybe he was that way because of Narcissa. She seemed like a good person. I wondered why the Malfoys were here at Father's house. Didn't Narcissa say Mr. Malfoy and Father had some business they had to do? Hmm… so, maybe they were colleagues? I had so many questions and also I wish I could speak with my father. He seemed genuinely happy to meet me, and wasn't rude to me since when I met him.

I didn't notice how fast the time passed as I was deep in thought, till a knock on the door startled me, and I saw that it was already evening. Narcissa entered the room, "You look very beautiful Arianne, What are you doing by the window? Are you alright?" She asked. "Thank you, I am alright, didn't notice the time actually. I was just thinking." I said, she nodded sadly at me and asked me to join her on a walk. We walked to the stairs, and climbed down, and walked through the hall, across quite a few rooms and reached a set of doors which opened up to a garden. 'Aunt Jane would love this garden' was the first thought that crossed my mind as the garden was filled with thousands of flower plants arranged neatly on either side of a grass covered path, which opened to a hill which looked like the perfect place to enjoy picnics. We walked along this path and as we approached the hill, Narcissa waved her wand and made a blanket appear on the ground, on which she sat and gestured for me to sit as well. We sat there in peaceful silence for a while. Then Narcissa asked me about mother, and my life in France and school and such things. We chatted for a while, and as it was getting nearer to sunset, we walked into the house once again. We walked into a big dining room, which had a table so large that it could fit at least twenty people. However, there were only five chairs currently. Mr. Malfoy, Draco and my father were already there. Father was sitting at the head of the table and Draco sat on one side of him. Narcissa went to sit beside Draco. My father asked me to take the seat beside him, just as Lucius was about to pull out that chair and sit. I sat down beside father as Lucius silently glared at me. Then Father snapped his fingers and said "Dizy" and with a crack sound, a house elf appeared and bowed, "Serve dinner Dizy, NOW!" Mr. Malfoy snarled at him. Dizy bowed to us and disappeared, appearing seconds later with a large dish hovering in air before him, which he placed on the table, more CRACKs sounded and two more elves appeared with more dishes, which they put on the table, which was when I squealed and jumped up, and rushed to one of them and hugged her tightly. "MINTY, I remember you; you were the one who helped mother and I when our village was set on fire." I said still hugging her. She looked at me in wonder, then she kissed my cheek, "Minty is honored that Miss remembers her and minty is glad to see Miss. Is Ms. Thomas here as well Ms?" Minty asked, I sighed and said that mother was still at home. Minty nodded, and looking to my left, suddenly started cowering in fear, then she started banging her head to the wall repeatedly. "MINTY, STOP! WHY ARE YOU…WHATARE YOU DOING? MINTY! NO!" I shouted, but she kept banging her head, I looked back at everyone else, but nobody made a move to stop her. At last minty stopped, and went and kneeled beside my father's chair, "Minty is sorry for hugging and kissing Miss, Minty was just happy to see her, It has been more than five years since Minty saw Ms." She said, Father looked at her in surprise and said "Minty, If you knew where Maricel was, why didn't you tell me? You knew I was searching for her?", before Minty could answer, I defend her, saying mom asked Minty to promise not to tell anyone where we were. Father nods and says "If that is so, you are excused Minty". Minty bows before leaving the room. Then everyone starts eating dinner, there were so many dishes in front of me: Steak, Lamb chops, Roast chicken, carrots and peas, and gravy. I helped myself to a small slice of chicken, some carrots and peas, and poured a little gravy over it, and started eating them. I complimented Narcissa for the tasty food, to which Mr. Malfoy snorted. After finishing dinner, the dishes on the table disappeared and there was chocolate cake, and a big dish of pudding. Mr. Malfoy helped himself to a very large slice of cake and some pudding. After Dinner, Minty and another elf appeared to clear the plates, I waved to minty, to which Mr. Malfoy snorted and said "Just like your stupid mother, associating with low-lives, hugging common house elves, no manners. " I didn't like him talking that way about mom, and how could he call Minty low life? I was so angry that it started snowing in the room. I noticed this and quickly controlled my emotions, and rose to my feet about to give him a piece of my mind that, after a long day, when I came here without anyone I know, to meet my father who I didn't know if would accept me or not. My mother was dead because of some evil man, and not only did he act rude to me, he was even insulting my mother? How dare he? But, before I could utter a word, Father stood and in a very angry tone shouted at Mr. Malfoy "How dare you Insult my wife in my own house? I never said anything in the afternoon when you made fun of my daughter's manners, but this is going too far. NEVER, ever, insult my wife or daughter again". Although I was touched by the fact that my father was defending my mother and I (I still didn't understand why he left mother if he loved her), what Lucius Malfoy said after that shocked and surprised me.

"Really! You didn't even know you had a daughter till last month, and suddenly you are defending her? And how dare I insult you wife you say? What else do you expect me to do when you bring this blasted girl into the house and act as if nothing is wrong? What if her mother is using her to get money? What if your perfect little daughter is here only for her inheritance? Did you ever think of that….

And don't forget FATHER that this is MY house as well. And MY mother was your first wife, and that I am your son too! Just because I am silent about your escapades, doesn't mean I am alright with this, with you having a daughter who almost the same age as my son. I am ashamed to think that I have a half-sister who is almost my son's age. Just you wait till news about this gets out. Our reputation will be ruined. I will not have that happening. Do you even have any Idea of the consequences?"

_**Author Note: Yeah now you know who her father is! Arianne is actually Arianne Malfoy?**_

_**So what do you think of the story so far? **_

_**The next few chapters will be about how her relationship with the malfoys progress as she grows older. And do her morales and values stay intact or now that she is a Malfoy, will she grow up to be a spoiled brat?**_

_**After that comes HOGWARTS chapters!**_


	6. Chapter 6

Hey everyone, 225 views already!I am excited. But do let me know what you think of the story after reading.

Disclaimer: All characters (Except my OCs and storyline) belong to J.K Rowling..

Chapter 6: Lucius Malfoy::

I was shocked and surprised by this. Wait… this means Lucius is my brother? Oh My Merlin! Draco is my nephew. I stand there dumbstruck! This cannot be happening right now. I was tuned out of the rest of the conversation because I couldn't even understand if this really was happening to me, that is till Lucius rudely bumped into me while leaving the room. Narcissa Left hurriedly behind him, apologizing to me, and dragging Draco, who was staring at me wide-eyed, away along with her. Mr. Malfoy my father, gently pats my back and leads me to an adjoining room, which appears to be a smoking room. He sits down in a plush green chair and asks me to take a seat beside him, in a black chair. I sit down quietly, still not quite out of the shock. We sit there in silence, me waiting for him to explain all this madness, which he does.

"Arianne, I apologize for Lucius's behavior. He didn't really mean what he just said. The past few days have been a bit rough on him, and all of us. I am Abraxus Malfoy, your father. I wanted to have this conversation with you today morning, but Cissa wanted you to relax and settle in before anything. She said we shouldn't overwhelm you. I understand if you hate me for not being in your life, or for what Luc just said. But he had a reason. You see, Luc's mother died when he was very young, just a tad bit older than you. We were married because our parents decided it. I wanted Luc to have a mother figure in his life, So I went to Paris to ask my friend's widowed sister to come and stay with us as she was a spinster. That was where I met your mother. She was the kindest person I ever met, at that time she was working as a teacher in the village school. I courted her for a while and we both fell in love with each other. Although at first she didn't want to move to London, but eventually decided to . We got married that year and she moved here with me. She was and is the best thing that happened to me, this house and family in a long long while. Luc instantly warmed up to her, and she was very kind to him. It all changed in Luc's fifth year at school. He started making new friends, friends who became bad influences on him. I didn't approve of them but I didn't exactly say anything to him. He was my only child and I never said no to him. I now realize that it was wrong, but then, I spoiled him rotten, bought whatever he asked for, did whatever he wanted. Celia, your mother warned me and reasoned with me many times not to let him off the hook always, but I didn't listen. Anyway, his friends started being weirder and weirder. Rich yes, pure blooded-mostly, but not exactly good influences. They used to visit him here, stay here for summers, etc. Then when he was in his seventh year, he started getting more and more secretive, and having strange secret meetings with his "friends" almost every other week during holidays. That was when I started realizing that something was wrong. We, your mother and I, confronted him one day, when he said it was none of our business. My Luc had changed from the sweet boy who was always polite and on his best behavior.

When he married Cissa, we thought he was changing for the better, because we could see the old Lucius, the sweet well-mannered boy, although he still was friends with bad people, he was changing. He even apologized to me and your mother for being rude. He became close to us again. He still had his secret meetings every month, with new people coming always. Sometimes they would meet at another friend's house or somewhere. On one such night, just after one of his meetings, after we greeted his friends' goodnight, your mother was in our room, crying inconsolably. That night, she had terrible nightmares, and a few days later she left us all with just a small note that she couldn't stay here anymore, and she had to leave us and she loved me and Luc. She wished Luc and Cissa luck and love.

It was a hard blow to me and Luc as well. Your mother meant the world to me. And Luc was just sad that he lost a mother the second time, But he showed it by being cold towards everyone. He started shutting people out of his life, started going out with other women, he changed completely, and this time for the worse. You looked like your mom when we spoke in the morning. We were watching you from the study window when you came in, and you were walking and talking so gracefully, just like your mother and you have her face. You reminded us of Maricel, and Luc panicked, all the hurt he locked up all those years ago, came back suddenly. This is why he was rude right now.

This is not the only reason though. You know Lucius went out with many women even after being married to Cissa, and almost every year some woman shows up with a child claiming Lucius is the father, or such things. All of them were Lying ofcourse, and they tried very hard with different potions and spells to prove that the child is Lucius' , but fail. When we got the letter your mother sent us, I was ecstatic, and happy that I have a daughter, and that your mother is alive. But Luc thought it was just another random claim to the malfoy inheritance. When you walked into the manor, Cissa and I knew that you were really my Celia's and my daughter. You have her face and mouth, my eyes, nose and you are a perfect mix of the both of us. And when you smiled at Draco, I knew for sure you were really my daughter.

Luc needs some time and maybe some love and encouragement to heal his hurt emotions. I am not making excuses for him, but he is after all your brother. I understand if you need time to warm up to us, or even if you never like us, but know that I love you my daughter. I always, always wanted a daughter, and here you are. I am sorry I was not able to be there for you in your life, I didn't know. But now I am here for you. You may not want to call me father, so you can call me Abraxus if you want. I love you my child, and am happy that you are here."

I listened to everything he said and silently stood up and went and hugged him. My father was a good man, just like mom said. "I am sorry that mom had to drop this news on you so abruptly. I am happy to be here too. At first I thought Lucius was just an arrogant rich man, but mom told me never to judge someone prematurely. And now I know why he is the way he is, I will not let it bother me. I am so grateful that you took me in, even after mom left you without an explanation. All my life I wondered about you. Mom said I would meet you one day, And although I don't like the circumstances that lead upto this meeting, I am glad to finally meet you too Papa. I love you." I hugged him tightly. He laughed and said he was glad to hear me call him papa. Wished me good night and after making sure I found my room, he left.

I was so glad my father didn't hate me. I was glad he was a good man. Mom always used to say he was a good man. I know Lucius was angry because of his pent up anger and hurt when mom abandoned them, and I knew that the first and last thing I had to do was to fix that, to help him come out of this and maybe gain a brother. I slept that night wondering why mother leftthem in the first place..

AN:

Hey guys, I hope you like the story. If you did favorite it, and leave a comment about anything you liked or didn't like.

I have a reason for why Abraxus is her father (instead of the obvious choice =Lucius) , but you will know as we progress with the story. I tried to make Lucius into someone who made bad choices and was not just a rich spoilt man.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Hey guys, I'm so excited that my story got so many views! Thanks for liking my story and thanks for the positive feedback. My writing is not consistently on time because I don't have a schedule for this story. I write as and when I am inspired. Pls bear with me. 3 3 3 **_

_**Without further ado, here's the next chapter.**_

_**Disclaimer: This story and all its characters (except my OCs and plotline) Belong to J. **_

**Chapter 7: Narcissa Malfoy**

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

I woke up to someone knocking repeatedly on my door, I sat up in the bed and said "come in" a bit grumpily, when a house elf came in looking up at me timidly and soon after entering bowed down and said in a stammering shivering voice "Dobby is very sorry for waking you up Ms. Malfoy, but Mistress has asked me to wake you up and tell you to get ready for breakfast. Dobby is really sorry Miss, Please forgive Dobby. Don't be mad at Dobby Miss" and he started banging his head on the chair beside my bed. I rushed out of my bed and went to Dobby to stop him from hitting his head. And as soon as he stopped I gave him a big hug and said "Oh Dobby! I am not angry with you for waking me up. Thank you very much for waking me up. Why were you hitting your head Dobby? Are you quite alright?" to which he replied with tears in his eyes "Miss is very kind. Dobby is a house elf. And has to punish himself when he makes his masters and mistresses angry". I hugged Dobby again and told him it wasn't his fault and that I just had a long day yesterday and was tired which was why I overslept. I didn't mean to be grumpy and if he really was supposed to listen to everything I say, then I asked him never to punish himself for my sake. I would never be angry with him. I then asked him to tell Narcissa I will be down in a few minutes. As soon as Dobby left, I rushed into the bathroom and finished my morning routine, then putting on a red and white dress, I rushed down to the dining hall thankfully without losing my way.

I was greeted by Narcissa and Draco, who were having their breakfast. The table was filled with a variety of breakfast options. I quickly sat down in a chair and served myself some toast and fruits and poured some milk into my glass. "Had a good sleep Arianne?" Narcissa asked me , with a pleasant smile on her face. I nodded to her and started diving into my fruit bowl. "You can call me Aria or Anne Narcissa, even you Draco " "Then I insist you call me Cissa darling" replied Cissa. "What are you going to do today Draco? Didn't you want to go to Blaise's house?" She said turning to Draco. At the mention of going to his friend's house he beamed and asked Cissa if he could take me along with him as well. "Maybe some other time dear, I and Anne have a lot of things to get done today" Cissa said. I didn't know we had any plans. As soon as Draco left (after trying his adorable pout to no avail), she turned to me "Anne dear, we are sisters by relation, but you are almost the same age as my son, and I always wanted a daughter. In-fact, Lucius, me and Father all expected a daughter when I was pregnant with Drake. Now that you are here, I get to spoil you with gifts, clothes and whatever you want. I already think of you as my own daughter. I hope you don't mind". I smiled at her "Of course not N… Cissa, I am glad that you are fond of me as a daughter. I did feel awkward calling you sister, because well, you know... " .

Narcissa Malfoy was a very classy woman, and although seemed arrogant, she was very loyal to ones she called her own. She also had an impeccable taste in fashion and the fact that scared me the most? -her absolute addiction to shopping. She was an extreme shopaholic. Although I have nothing against beautiful dresses or jewelry or for that matter shopping in general, she went totally overboard. She bought so many cloth materials. She picked out cloth of silks, few cottons, velvet, lace and ribbons of every color and shade under the sun. After she was satisfied, that it would be enough to fill my wardrobe; we went to Madame De 'la Viole. She took my measurements and asked us to collect our clothes in 2 days.

By the time we came out of the dress maker's, it was 3 in the afternoon. As soon as Cissa saw the time, she hurried me into the nearest restaurant for lunch, apologizing all the way to our seats- "I am so sorry Annie, I didn't think of stopping for lunch. I was so excited to shop for you, that at last I have a girl to dress up with pretty clothes, that it totally skipped my mind."

"It's alright Cissa, I was not hungry or else I would have asked you to stop for a while. Let's eat lunch now, and head home, shall we?" I asked, hoping that we didn't have to shop more. "Of course" she smiled as the waiter lead us to a table facing a small lake. "Mrs. Malfoy, Pleased to see you here. What can I get you and the young lady today?" He asked, looking me up and down as if wondering what I was doing, having lunch with The Narcissa Malfoy. Narcissa ordered us some chilled lemonade and sent him away. I noticed that the room was so silent, you could hear a feather drop to the ground. All eyes were on Cissa and me. As soon as he left, people started whispering animatedly to each other, often pointing at our table. Cissa waved her wand and instantly a kind of partition appeared around our table. Then turning to me, she assured me that people didn't mean anything by the looks and whispers, and it was common for people to analyze each and every detail in the lives of rich and famous people like the Malfoys, and spread rumors about it. "Just you wait till tomorrow; the newspapers will be filled with news about Mrs. Malfoy having Lunch with a young girl who may be her husband's mistress' illegitimate child, or that Mrs. Malfoy seen with a young girl who may be the future Mrs. Malfoy, or something along those lines, with exclusive interviews with the waiter who served them luncheon. Just ignore the looks and whispers and you should be good. Let them have their five minutes of fame. After that the rumor dies away and another arises. If anybody says or does something that bothers you, however insignificant it may seem, let me know immediately. I will deal with them".

I was so touched by Cissa's words that I was left speechless. The waiter appeared with our lemonades and took our orders; Cissa ordered some salad, and some scampi. I ordered a hamburger, chips and a child's portion of Shepard's pie. As soon as I ordered, the waiter looked at me as though I asked him to dance like an elf. "Hamburger and chips MADAM?" He smirked, Cissa cleared her throat and glared at the waiter and asked him to get the food we ordered, to which he simply nodded his head, bowed to Cissa slightly and left. _How can someone look down at people for what they eat? Did I do something wrong? Maybe I should have ordered what Cissa did. Now I embarrassed her too. Stupid foolish me!_

I came out of my reverie when I felt someone touch my hand, I looked up to see Cissa was beside me, She was looking at me worried. I looked down into my lap and said "I am sorry Cissa, I didn't know what to order. And I don't like sea food that much. I will not embarrass you from next time. Will you teach me what to order?" She gave me a sad smile, gathered me into her arms, and stroking my hair said "Darling, you didn't embarrass me, you can't let people put you down for the choice of food or clothes. You can order whatever you wish to eat. Do not cry for such a small matter. When I was young, my mother used to say that even what you order at a restaurant shows your class. I believed her. But now, I am telling you from experience, never let anyone put you down. It's ok to eat, wear and be what you want. People must respect you because of your character and attitude. Please don't cry my dear." "Thanks Cissa, you are amazing"

A few minutes after I wiped my tears, the waiter came in with our orders and placed them on our table. I said "Thank you" with a confident smile, which surprised the waiter. "No problem Ma'am" he said and left us to have our lunch. We ate to our stomach's full (At least I did) and left the restaurant. "Now Anne, before we go home, we have one last stop to make" Cissa said. She asked me to hold on to her arm tightly, and as soon as she turned in her place, I felt the familiar squeeze in my stomach when you apparate. The next second, we were standing in front of a magnificent shop, with window display of gold and diamond ornaments. We entered that shop, and Cissa went to the person behind the counter and they started having a silent conversation, after which the person went inside the store, and appeared with a small package securely tied with a ribbon. Cissa put this into her bag, and then gestured for me to follow her, she held out many jewelry pieces: Earrings, chains, bracelets and selected quite a few for me and also some for her, then after paying for our purchases, we left. As soon as we stepped out of the shop, she asked me to hold on to her hand, and we apparated back to the Malfoy Manor gate.

We were back just in time to freshen up and go to have dinner. Cissa put all the ribbons and jewelry she bought for me in my closet and asked me to put on a dress she picked out for me. I quickly took a bath and wore the dress Cissa picked out, and rushed downstairs to join father, Luc, Draco and Cissa for dinner. Thankfully I was seated as far away from Luc as possible. He didn't even look at me. Just wished father, Cissa and Draco and started digging into his plate. I wished everyone present (including Luc – to which he replied with a grunt and slight nod) and started digging in as well. "So Aria, Where did you and Cissa go off to today?" father asked, "I took her to get new clothes father" Cissa answered for me. "Did you have fun dear?" he asked "Yes father, although I am not used to shopping like Cissa, I got to spend time with her" At which, Luc snorted "Of course, nobody can ever shop like Cissa" He said laughing. I was astonished, and all of us looked at Luc strangely. Did he just laugh and share a joke with me? He didn't shout or be angry with me! Good Merlin! Suddenly, Luc realized he was just civil towards me, and amended his fault by adding "and I am sure someone like you will get used to spending someone else's money very quickly"

That was a low hit, even for Luc, and I knew he knew it and regretted saying it (it showed in his face) , but it didn't hurt any less. I was aware of the tears that started flowing, and quickly rushed out of the room. I ran to my room and collapsed on the floor crying. How can he still think I was after his or their money? Is that how everyone saw me? Maybe even father and Cissa thought so, but were too polite to say anything.

I couldn't stop crying. I was a mess.

Knock Knock!

Someone was knocking at the door; I ignored it and was lying on the floor.

**AN:**

**Hey that's all for this chapter. Just a chapter to show Narcissa's initial reactions, and interactions with Arianne. **

**Ne more thing, The secrets of Arianne are not quite over. There still are so many secrets and twists along the story.**

**Hope you stick with the story a while longer and read.**

**If you liked the story, like it and leave a comment. If you want to get updates when I write a new chapter, follow this story.**

**Okayy**

**Thanksss!**

**Love you guys!**


	8. Chapter 8

Hey guys, in this chapter, Arianne's conversations will be in Bold Italic: _**"This is Arianne's conversation" **_

Disclaimer: All original characters and story belong to J. . I own just my story's plotline and OCs.

**Chapter 8**

"Wake up! Wake up!"

I was woken up by someone shaking me and shouting in my ear. I sat up hurriedly thinking it was an emergency, only to see Drake standing beside my bed smiling as if it was Christmas. _**"What is it Dra?"**_ "We got letters!" Draco said.

I huffed angrily and fell back onto my bed _**"You woke me up to say we got letters? Go away Drake. Let me sleep, and don't wake me up unless you have a better reason, say for example we GOT OUR LETTERS! OH MERLINWHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME SO IN THE FIRST PLACE!"**_

I said suddenly realizing that by letters he meant THE LETTERS.

I was supposed to get my letter last year, but Luc and Cissa forgot they didn't add my name to the school list. But due to the never ending Malfoy money, we could enter my name for the next year instead, and, I get to attend the same year as Drake, so I am not complaining.

I shot right out of bed and ran to the dining room where I knew I would find the person I was looking for. She was standing with her back to me, looking at something on the table, taking this as a chance I slowly sneaked up to her and when I was just behind her, _**shouted "WE GOT THEM, WE GOT OUR LETTERS!"**_ to which she jumped dropping the spoons in her hand. "Oh Anne, you scared me. Yes I saw your letters in the mail. I guess celebrations are in order. How about you and I go shopping for your school wardrobe tomorrow?" _Oh no! Escape mode!_ _**"But Cissa, can't we go to Diagon Ally instead, and if I remember correctly, you promised me no more shopping for now. We just came back from Paris last week. Besides I want to visit Botty Madison's Shop in Italy tomorrow. Please!"**_

I all but begged her (not really begging, more like Pouting and Puppy eyes) to take me to Botty's instead.

"Merlin! Alright! I did say we could go to any shop you want. But can we at least go see the Goblin made jewelry in Italy while we are there?"

"_**Thank you, thank you Cissa. Of course we can go see jewelry. Let me go show the letter to Papa"**_ I said and went upstairs to Papa's room after giving Cissa a tight hug and a peck on her cheek.

"_**Papa"**_ I called knocking on the door once. "Come in". I went in to see Papa sitting at his desk, writing something in a black diary.

"_**Papa, I got my letter today, it's here. Do you want me to read it?**_" I asked. "Absolutely my dear Lia. Go on! Read what it says"

"_**Okay papa here goes, it's addressed to me: Ms. A. Thomas, The Purple Princess Bedroom, Malfoy Manor. It reads:**_

_**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**_

_**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**_

_**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**_

_**Dear Ms. Thomas,**_

_**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**_

_**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.**_

_**Yours sincerely,**_

_**Minerva McGonagall,**_

_**Deputy Headmistress**_

_**Wait, there's more:**_

_**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**_

_**UNIFORM**_

_**First-year students will require:**_

_**1\. Three sets of plain work robes (black)**_

_**2\. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**_

_**3\. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)**_

_**4\. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)**_

_**Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags**_

_**COURSE BOOKS**_

_**All students should have a copy of each of the following:**_

_**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)by Miranda Goshawk**_

_**A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot**_

_**Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling**_

_**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch**_

_**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore**_

_**Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger**_

_**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander**_

_**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble**_

_**OTHER EQUIPMENT**_

_**1 wand**_

_**1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)**_

_**1 set of glass or crystal phials**_

_**1 telescope set**_

_**1 brass scales**_

_**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**_

_**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS.**_

_**That's all Pa. When can we go shop for my books Papa?"**_ I asked.

"Lia, I have to go to the Ministry today. How about you go to Diagon Alley with Cissa today, and I will come meet you there after I finish my work?"

"_**Sure papa, I love you." **_I said and left to have breakfast. All through breakfast I and Draco kept talking about Hogwarts. We were excited to get our wands, and Draco excited about trying to smuggle in a new broom.

"_**It's not going to work Draco. Even if you do smuggle in a broom, Do you intend to keep it locked away in your room? What will you say when people see a first year flying on a broom?"**_

Draco: "Oh come on Ari, Don't be a spoilsport, I will manage it somehow. And imagine how many people will be jealous of me when they know that a first year student has smuggled in a broom?"

"_**Huh! Whatever you say Drakey" **_

As soon as we finished breakfast, I rushed off to get dressed and we all left to Diagon Alley. Luc decided it would be a short trip if we divided into two groups and divided our lists (if you could call 2 people a group), so I apparated with Cissa, and Draco with Luc.

While Luc went to get our books, we dropped off Draco at Madam Malkin's and went to get our wands. I was as excited as any other 11yr old witch to get her wand, but I was also nervous because what if there was no wand for me? What if because I could do Wandless magic, I wouldn't be allowed to have a wand? These and many other questions were swirling in my mind as we stopped in front of a narrow and shabby shop. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair and thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling.

"Mrs. Malfoy! Good afternoon." Said a soft voice, a moment later an old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Mrs. Malfoy, Pleased to see you here. Here for your wand I suppose, let's see, which is your wand arm Ms. Malfoy?" He said, pulling a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. _**"My right hand Mr. Ollivander" **_I replied tensedly "We would also like to look at wands for my son Draco Malfoy, Mr. Ollivander" Cissa added. "Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured me from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round my head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mrs. Malfoy. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand. So I suggest young Mr. Malfoy to come here personally to pick his wand. Although you are welcome to choose for him if you must", to which Cissa said "Draco will come by with his father then". Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes. "That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Ms. Malfoy. Try this one. Maple and dragon heartstring. Ten inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave." I took the wand and waved it around a bit, but nothing happened, just a few sparks, "Beechwood and phoenix feather. Nine inches. Quite whippy. Try this" I hardly raised the wand when it was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander. "No, no — here, holly and dragon heartstring, twelve inches, springy and supple. Go on, go on, try it out." As soon as I took the wand I felt a warm feeling in my fingers which spread through my whole body and I knew that this was my wand. I was so happy to get my wand and didn't want to part with it anytime soon, but had to give it to Mr. Ollivander, who wrapped it in a box and handed it to Cissa. Next we went by Madam Malkins to see if Draco's fitting was done. "Anne you go find Draco and then get fitted after him, I already spoke with Madam Malkin last week regarding your uniform. I will go find Lucius and ask him to take Draco to Mr. Ollivander's. Meet us at the Ice cream parlour after your fitting" Cissa said leaving me at the door of Madam Malkins. I turned around and found Draco deep in conversation with a pale looking, thin boy with messy hair. Strange for Drake to make friends so soon or maybe he is bullying the poor kid. I turned to go into the shop when I crashed into a huge wall that I didn't see was there, I looked up to see a man who was almost three times the height of Luc, with wild bushy hair. He helped me up very gently and said he was sorry. _**"No problem sir, it's ok. I didn't see where I was going. " **_ I said, to which he smiled at me kindly and looked in the window of the shop (Maybe looking for his son), I rushed inside the shop to see what was going on and heard a snap of their conversation,

Draco was asking something "… he with you? Where are your parents?"

"They're dead," said the messy black haired boy.

"Oh, sorry," said Draco, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were _our _kind, weren't they?"

"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"

But before the messy haired boy could answer, I interrupted them,

"_**Hey Dra are done with your robes?"**_ Both of them turned to me, I nodded at the other boy knowingly, and he silently thanked me for the interruption and hopped down from the footstool.

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," Draco said before coming to stand with me "Yes I am done with my robes. Did you get your wand? Can I see it?" He asked. "Yes Dra I got it, but it's with Cissa right now. I will show you it when we reach home, alright?" I said. Madam Malkin came up to us, seeing me she smiled and said "Ah Ms. Thomas, here to be fitted into your robes?, Mrs. Malfoy told me about your robes. We brought in the finest cloth for your robes from china and Paris. Now if you will step on to the stool please?". I quickly stepped onto the stool and she drew a curtain around me. After getting fitted, we thanked her and left to go to the ice cream parlor. We saw Luc and Cissa walking towards the parlor along with Papa. _**" Papa! You made it here!" **_I exclaimed jumping up and down, excited to see him. "Of course darling, I promised you I would, didn't I?" papa said giving me a tight hug. "Well father, Draco and I are going to get his wand. Cissa is taking their school supplies home. You can go with Arianne to get her a pet." Papa nodded and we left to the area with all the pet shops. "Now Lia, what pet would you like to get? A cat or an owl? I hope toads are out of the question?" Papa said smirking, _**"Of course Pa, No toads, or Cissa would freak out, Can we get an owl maybe?" **_I asked. "Of course, owl it is". So we went to the owl emporium, which had many varieties of owls, from tiny pygmy owls to the regular brown owls, white owls, and also a few exotic ones. We looked at all the owls and I decided to buy a Grey and brown eagle owl. It was a baby still and the owner tried to dissuade us from buying it as it was just learning how to fly, But I fell in love with the cute thing and insisted that I would buy only that owl. So, obviously papa bought it, and we left to sneak into the ice-cream parlor and eat some ice cream, because Cissa and Luc weren't here to call it beneath our status to eat at such a common place. And we enjoyed ourselves, visiting different shops, buying prank stuff, and just enjoying each other's company.

**A.N : Hey guys so Arianne's grown up a bit and starting Hogwarts. This is where the real adventure begins. Thank you for reading my story. If you like it please comment and favorite the story. 3 3**


	9. Chapter 9

**A.N:**** Hey guys, I am super inspired today, and hence you get two chapters ****. Hope you like this chapter. **

In this chapter, Arianne's conversations will be in Bold Italic:_**"This is Arianne's conversation" **_

**Disclaimer: All original characters and story belong to J. . I own just my story's plotline and OCs.**

**Chapter 9**

The next month flew away with shopping trips to different countries, and parties. Finally it was the first day of school, the day we were supposed to leave to Hogwarts. That morning I got ready after Cissa checked if I had everything she bought me packed in my trunks, We went to King's cross station, a muggle train station, and went through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, and after Minty and Dobby helped put away all our belongings into the luggage cart, Ciss hugged and kissed us goodbye (Almost at the brink of sobbing, but hiding it perfectly like a Lady) Luc waved goodbye and we both went away to find an empty cart to sit in.

Draco led us to the corner of the train farthest from where all the Gryffindors were, so naturally this cart was filled with Slytherins. Although we could see older students making fun or bullying first years, people steered clear of us, naturally because everyone knew the Malfoys, and knew they would never get away with messing with us. We settled into an empty compartment, after a while Draco left to socialize with Luc's associate's children, which according to him was a necessary and important thing. So I took my wand and after stashing away my robes safely in my bag, went around the train, After walking around for a while, I stood at the door to my compartment, thinking this is it. I am going to be away from my family for almost a year.

Funny how a few years back I didn't even know they existed. Now, I love them and am going to miss them every day. Ithought back to how I felt when I first knew Luc was my brother and about Papa, When Luc hated me, how he slowly started to warm up to me. I was glad that he finally accepted me as his sister, and I loved how he cared for me like a daughter. Our relationship was more like a father and daughter, than half-siblings.

I stood at the door of a compartment deep in thought, till someone tapped me on my shoulders, instantly I turned around and punched them, but they caught my hand before I hit them, and with a sigh said "Remind me never to sneak up on you when your mind is somewhere out of the world Arianne" It was Blaise _**"Blaise! I didn't see you there. Sorry, I was just thinking about school. How are you?", **_"I am fine Arianne, Happen to know where Draco is?" He asked. _**"He was socializing with some people in Slytherin the last time I saw him,and how many times do I have to ask you to stop calling me by my full name, you can call me Anne or Aria" **_, "I know, but it's either Arianne or , you choose which" Blaise said , smirking. _**"Alright, alright, you may call me Arianne, Go find Draco. I am sure your mother would want you to socialize as well".**_

Blaise went to find Draco, and I decided to go inside our compartment. When I turned around, to leave, two people bumped into me - a girl with long dirty blond hair, which was wild and bushy, with big front teeth, and the other was a tall and frightened looking boy who seemed to be sniffing and anxious. Both of them looking out of place in the Slytherin compartment. _**"Hello, are you both lost? You look like first years as well, and believe me you wouldn't want to be in this compartment. Do you need help finding a place to sit?" **_I asked them, making sure to check to see none of the older Slytherins were coming this way. "No, we are not lost. Neville here lost his toad, and I am helping him find it. Did you happen to see a toad by any chance?" The bushy haired girl asked me. _**"No, I didn't see any toad around here, and don't bother asking for it inside this coach or the older students will beat you up". **_

After they left I decided I would walk around a little more, the train had not started yet. As I was looking at all the students, seated by their friends, or waving to their parents, students still on the platform getting hugged by their mothers, Although I made peace with the fact that my mother was dead and in a better place, I couldn't help but daydream that: what if mom were here, waving me goodbye from the platform, The last few days I was missing mom more than ever. I had a few sleepless nights, remembering mom. Remembering her vision, and her death. Remembering everything she ever said or taught me, how we understood each other, how she sent me away so that I could live. Iwished she could be here today, to wave goodbye to me. As I was thinking all this, the train was slowly moving forward and all the students were waving final goodbyes to their parents, and suddenly out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a woman with red hair wave goodbye to me. '_MOM! Was that mom?' _I turned to look back, but didn't find her. Standing there was a woman with red hair, holding the hand of a girl with equally red hair, waving to some students. Maybe I mistook her for mom because of the red hair. I sighed loudly and started walking back to our compartment before Dra comes looking for me.

Strange how all the kids were whispering among themselves. I wondered if something was wrong.

I waited in the compartment for a very long time, still no sign of Draco, so I went back and looked everywhere but couldn't find him. But I did find out what all the whispering and gossip was about, Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived was starting Hogwarts this year and everyone was talking about it. That explains it, maybe Drake had gone off to find the savior and knowing Drake, and he would either try to become best buddies with him or hurt him very badly.

I rushed to look for him; I walked through all the coaches trying to find him, at last I reached Gryffindor and/or Hufflepuff coach where I met with Hermione and Neville who were still looking for his toad. Hearing a huge commotion we all rushed off in that direction thinking it was a fight. "What _has _been going on here?" Hermione said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and a red haired boy picking up a rat by his tail and saying "I think he's been knocked out," to a black haired boy, the same one I met at Madam Malkin's, who looked closer at the rat and said "No — I don't believe it — he's gone back to sleep."

Before I could say anything, the red haired boy asked "You've met Malfoy before?" the other boy explained how he met him in Diagon Alley. "I've heard of his family, They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." The red haired boy said before he turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"

"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"

"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said the red haired boy, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"

"All right — I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?" Ron glared at her as she left. It was mean of him to speak like that to Hermione, and the way he spoke about my family made my blood boil. But I knew he was not the only one who thought Malfoys were Dark wizards and witches, there were many others.

I was about to leave as well, but the black haired boy introduced himself, he was Harry Potter (THE HARRY POTTER!) and the other one with red hair was Ron Weasley. _**"Nice to meet you both Harry and Ron, but Hermione is right we need to get changed into our robes. See you at the school?" **_I said before leaving them to get changed. Just as I reached the compartment which had my bag and robes, a voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately." So I hurriedly rushed in, bolted the door and changed into my robes. And sat down looking out of the window, after a few moments the train slowed right down and finally stopped.

People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. I was thankful for Cissa insisting I carry a shawl because I could see people shivering in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students walking by, and a familiar voice shouting: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?" I finally could see that it was the same man whom I bumped into in front of Madam Malkin's shouting "C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, all of us followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of us, and nobody spoke much. "Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," The giant man named Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here." There was a loud "Oooooh!"

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. "No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. I got into a boat with Draco, and two other boys(Thankfully not his new "friends" Crabbe and Goyle. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then — FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over us as we sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; we all bent their heads and the boats carried us through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face and were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking us right underneath the castle. We reached a kind of underground harbor, where we clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them. "Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then we clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. After we walked up a flight of stone steps and stood around the huge, oak front door. "Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face. "The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid. "Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She pulled the door wide. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches and a magnificent marble staircase facing us led to the upper floors.

We followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. We could all hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right — the rest of the school must already be here — but Professor McGonagall showed us, first years, into a small, empty chamber off the hall Where we all stood together nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. "I shall return when we are ready for you, Please wait quietly" Professor McGonagall said leaving the chamber.

Then something happened that made us all jump up and scream. "What the —?" someone gasped. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance —"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost — I say, what are you all doing here?"

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.

Nobody answered.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"

A few people nodded mutely.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

Professor McGonagall asked us to form a line and follow her, so we walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, laid with glittering golden plates and goblets where the rest of the students were sitting. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led us first years up here, where we came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind us. Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth — and the hat began to sing:

"_Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_if you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folk use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said.

"Abbott, Hannah!"

A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause —

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers.

"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Ron groaned.

"Neville Longbottom", he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."

Draco strode forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!" he went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased that he made Luc and Cissa proud of him.

There weren't many people left now. "Moon"… , "Nott"… , "Parkinson"… , then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil"… , then "Perks, Sally-Anne"… , and then, of course, the celebrity of the century — "Potter, Harry!" The hat took a while to decide and finally said "Gryffindor", and the whole Gryffindor table started cheering "We got potter, We got potter" could be heard among the cheers. After P's came the R's, S's and finally T's.

"Thomas, Arianne" I nervously went forward, and sat down on the stool, the hat was placed on my head.

"Ah! Ms. Thomas, or should I say Ms. Malfoy, I think you would be delighted to be sorted into Slytherin like all your family? Or maybe… Let's see, you are a very powerful witch, Ah The Shield I see, Hmm, how about placing you in Gryffindor, you are very brave. Or maybe Ravenclaw would suit you as you have a yearning for knowledge and are very Clever. Hufflepuff would suit you as well, you are very loyal and hardworking. Now, which house to put you in? Oh yes! I know, better be….."

…**to be continued..**

**A.N : Hey guys so which house do you think Arianne will be in? The first person to comment with the correct answer will get a shout-out, and also will get the chance to decide an important event in this story. The next chapter will be posted after I get atleast 5 comments guessing her house (Or till atleast one correct Answer ) Thank you for reading my story. If you like it please comment and favorite the story. 3 3**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **_**Hey friends, I am sorry, I couldn't write for so long, I just couldn't keep up with writing my personal blog, Job, writing my scientific blog and stuff. I am free for a while, so took back to writing this story. If you have been reading from the first chap, thanks for bearing with me, And thanks to Jes for inspiring me to continue my fiction story.**_

**As usual the canon storyline and all characters belong to J.**_** . I own only my characters and plotline.**_

**Chapter 10: Houses and friends**

_**Previously: **__"Ah! Ms. Thomas, or should I say Ms. Malfoy, I think you would be delighted to be sorted into Slytherin like all your family? Or maybe.… Let's see, you are a very powerful witch, Ah The Shield I see, Hmm, how about placing you in Gryffindor, you are very brave. Or maybe Ravenclaw would suit you as you have a yearning for knowledge and are very Clever. Hufflepuff would suit you as well, you are very loyal and hardworking. Now, which house to put you in? Oh yes! I know, better be….."_

**Continued:**

…**.**Ravenclaw"

'_What? Ravenclaw? At least I am not in Slytherin or Gryffindor! Thank you Mr. Cap'_

I rush over to the Ravenclaw table wondering how the cap knew about the shield. I wish I could ask the cap about what the meaning of the shield was, but I was too afraid that the other people in the room would hear it. I pushed all thoughts of the conversation to the back of my mind and focused on my surrounding and my new house. Unlike the other houses, I didn't get any hugs, or welcome handshakes, not even a hello. Just a few nods, and then they turned back to look at the high table. As if they were in a classroom. Not a great start. But hey, at least they are not being fake. I go down the table looking for a place to sit, finally find a seat empty near a first year.

"_**Excuse me miss, May I sit here if you don't have an objection?"**_

The first year turns around to see me and I meet familiar and comforting silver like eyes, and a kind face, "Of course you can, Welcome to Ravenclaw. You are Arianna aren't you? "(I nod), "Hello, I am Luna, Luna Pandora Lovegood. I hope we can be good friends in the future, seeing that we are in the same house?"

"_**Of course Luna, I would love to be friends with you. " **_I said

By this time, Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

"Thank you!"

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. _'Hahaha! Dumbledore reminds me so much of Papa. Hmmm… I miss him.'_

As soon as the Headmaster sat down, the dishes magically piled up with a variety of dishes like roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, also peppermint humbugs.

I put some fries and lamb chops and veggies onto my plate, and turned to look at Draco. I wanted to see his reaction because according to him 'the food at Hogwarts would be drab compared to what we ate at home'. Although we had amazingly delicious food at home, we did not have so many varieties of dishes at once. And the food here tasted almost the same as home. There was a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. The Bloody Baron, Luc told us so many stories about the bloody baron, when we were kids, he would frighten us saying, if we did not listen to him, the Bloody Baron would come and take us away to a dark dungeon inside Hogwarts. I saw that the ghost was seated right next to Drak and I could understand the reason for him feeling uneasy.

As soon as the desserts too disappeared, Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.

"Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.

First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of two redheaded (Probably Weasleys) older students, who looked like twins.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.

And finally, I must tell you that, this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.

And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore.

Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which was raised high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.

"Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"

And the school bellowed:

"_Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, _

_Teach us something please, _

_Whether we be old and bald _

_Or young with scabby knees, _

_Our heads could do with filling _

_With some interesting stuff, _

_For now they're bare and full of air, _

_Dead flies and bits of fluff, _

_So teach us things worth knowing, _

_Bring back what we've forgot, _

_just do your best, we'll do the rest, _

_And learn until our brains all rot." _

Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the redheaded twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

All of us, Ravenclaw first years followed an older student through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up a set of staircases, yawning and dragging our feet, suddenly we came to a halt in a hallway decorated with many suits of armor. The prefect went to the fifth suit of armor and suddenly two of the iron soldiers drew their swords and the portrait on the wall behind them spoke "Before you pass answer this riddle" I was too sleepy to pay attention to the riddle, but obviously tomorrow's riddle would be different from todays, so I just walked along with everyone when a door which was not there seconds ago opened into a hall or homeroom.

The prefect directed the girls to the left side stairs and the boys to the right. At the top of the stairs, we found the first years rooms. Unlike other houses, Ravenclaw had only two students per room, and I was glad that I was in the same room as Luna. She entered the room a second after me and said "I am very happy that you are my roommate, but I am too sleepy to discuss roommate rules, can we do that tomorrow". I agreed with her and let her chose her side of the room first, there were two four-poster beds hung with royal blue, velvet curtains. As promised, our trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, we pulled on our pajamas and fell into bed.

I woke up early the next day, almost too early, but was surprised to find Luna already up and dressed and ready for classes. She was standing beside her bed, with a mirror and painting in hand and a box full of girly decorations at her feet, and staring too seriously at the wall. I got out of my bed and standing beside her asked her what was wrong. "I am not sure where to put these decorations. I don't care much for decorating, but dad says they were my mother's. But I am very bad at decorating rooms.

"**Here, let me help you" **I say taking the mirror and painting from her hand and positioning them on the wall. I bend down looking in the box, taking out the pieces one by one, I manage to decorate her side of the room. The end result looked really pretty. Her wall was covered with a collage of her mother's pictures of when she was in Hogwarts, a few weird paintings, trophies for being the weirdest student in Hogwarts, Best inventor, most likely to succeed at inventions, and such things, Then came a few beautiful trinket boxes which contained lots of interesting jewelry pieces, Carrot earrings, gnome lockets, etc,.

Luna hugged me thank you and sat down on the bed writing a letter. This reminded me that I had completely forgotten to write a letter to Cissa and Papa.

I rushed to take a bath, get ready and started writing a short letter to Cissa saying I was in Ravenclaw and Drake was sorted into Slytherin. Then I wrote to Papa, saying the same, but a bit more detailed.

The whole day, wherever I went I heard people whispering about The Boy Who Lived:

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."

"Wearing the glasses?"

"Did you see his face?"

"Did you see his scar?"

Whispers followed Harry Potter wherever he went. People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring.

Luna and I had the same classes and we stuck together the whole day. We had to study the night skies through our telescopes every Wednesday at midnight along with the Gryffindors, and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets.

Three times a week we went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a plump witch called Professor Sprout, where we learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.

Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while we scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.

Professor Flitwick, our head of house, and the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. His classes were the most fun.

Professor McGonagall was again different, strict and clever. she gave us all a talking-to the moment we sat down in her first class.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. We were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized we weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, we were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only I had successfully turned the match into a needle (I remembered practicing transfiguration with mother and how difficult it had been to master it without a Wand), and Hermione had made some changes to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione and me a rare smile.

The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts (DADA), turned out to be a bit of a joke because of Quirrell's lessons. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but we didn't believe this story because, when Seamus Finnigan, a Gryffindor, asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather.

Then there was potions, the class where almost all Ravenclaw first years were trying their best to impress the teacher, Professor Snape. Although Severus knew me at home, in class, he treated me like any other student, if not stricter. He expected more from me because he knew my interest in potions, and because of all the potions lessons he had given me throughout my stay at the manor. He had become more of a father figure to me. He taught me everything I knew about this magical world. He was the only one who knew about my Wandless magic. He taught me not only Potions and DADA, but also Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, etc. He took me to the muggle world, although initially Drake accompanied us, he was not that taken by it. He encouraged me to study about every topic in the Wizarding world. Sometimes even the forbidden topics provided he was there to monitor.

I knew about his past as a dark wizard, but I still trusted him more than I trusted anyone else, even my own father. Although he had the dark mark on his wrist, his heart belonged to the light. Now, I am not saying he was perfect and totally good, but who is? The world is never black and white, nothing ever is, and Severus had his flaws. He would hold grudges to the grave, difficult to gain his trust, always glum and serious, appeared conceited and showed favoritism, and I believe also has obsessive compulsive disorder, but he also would be grateful for one small help till the end of the world, once you gained his trust, he would defend you till his last breath, he had a great sense of humor/sarcasm which most people didn't appreciate, he was loyal beyond anything, and his OCD made him the perfect potions master that he is. He was the father I never had, because although papa was my real father, our relationship was more grandfather-grandchild like due to the age-gap.

The week was over, in all the excitement. Adjustment, making new friends and learning, before anyone even realized. We didn't have many assignments, although this didn't stop all the Ravenclaws from studying as if preparing for OWLS. Luna and I spent the Friday afternoon helping each other officially unpack our suitcases, discuss classes and our lives at home. Although I didn't exactly tell her I was a Malfoy, I did tell her I was from a pure blood enthusiast's family, although I didn't believe in all that rubbish. She told me about her mother's death, and all the interesting facts about nargles and such creatures which sometimes sounded too made-up/unusual to really exist. But this was a Wizarding world where magic existed, so what was to say that all the things she said don't exist?

On Saturday, I woke up to a familiar tapping sound, which as I suspected turned out to be Prince with 2 letters. He waited patiently while I untied the letters tied around his foot and seeing my name on both, went to my bed to read them.

**A/N: Hey guys, once again sorry my chap is late. But as I already told you, I write when and how inspired, although I have a basic skeleton ready for the story. Also as some of you asked, I could have made Lucius her father, but there is a very good reason for Abraxus being her father. Thanks to those who have been patient with my not so constant schedule. I always wondered and sometimes even got impatient when my fav stories had not been updated regularly, but now am looking from the other side of the coin. Hats-off to all those authors who are posting stories punctually.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Hey guys my next chapter. Things move a bit faster here in Arianne's story than in the book. The fanfic about the first book will be basically how she got close to her friends and such and her part will not too big, but is prominent. The first part will be done in a few more chapters. **

**Thanks to all of you who read and favorited this story...**

**All original Characters and storylines belong to J.K. Rowling. I only own my OCs and my storyline. **

**Chapter 11 – Gryffindors**

I open the first letter, it was from Cissa. '_Long overdue, wonder why she took so long to write' _

LETTER:

"Dear Annie,

First off, you might be wondering why my letter is so late. That is because I know how exciting and time consuming first few weeks at Hogwarts go by. I was a first year once too. So I wanted to give you some time to breathe.

I am so happy that you got into Ravenclaw. I always thought you were too clever for your age, and too shy to be in Slytherin. Well, I hope you adjust well in Ravenclaw. You father is very happy about it. Well we had a bet about which house you would be in, I said Slytherin and your father was sure it was Ravenclaw. Now, according to his bet, he is allowed to eat cakes and other sweet things for 3 whole days. And before you start the lecture, yes I already spoke to the healers at Mungo's; they gave me a special kind of sugar which won't cause his health to deteriorate.

I always thought you studied way too much, what with your constant questions, practicing potions and charms with Severus and always reading any book you could lay hands on. I also always tell you how much I love blue dresses on you. They go so well with your hair and skin. I already asked Madame La Pomone to make new dresses for you in Blues. In fact, next week Severus will be bringing you a few dresses.

I hope Draco is doing well. I got his letter saying he was sorted into Slytherin. Please take care of him. You and I both know that however tough he may act, he is just a boy, who is sensitive and bitter. I still can't tell you how happy I am that you came into our lives. I always remember the Draco who was so kind and good, but then he wanted to be more like his father and started doing anything and everything to please him. I know that deep down he still is a good person. Please take care of him.

Lucius sends his congratulations. Now don't be surprised. It did take a while to convince him, but eventually he came around. He is very proud of Draco for being in Slytherin.

Tell me all about your classes. Make us proud by getting good grades.

Love,

Cissa"

I smiled to myself. Typical Cissa always worried about clothes. I looked over the letter once more before opening the other letter, which was from Papa.

LETTER:

"Dearest Lia,

I would like to start by telling you how much I miss you. It's very silent and lonely here at the Mansion without you and Draco. I miss our walks and chats. Secondly I am so delighted that you got sorted into Ravenclaw.

Take good care of yourself darling. Make sure you show everyone that the Malfoys are best at everything.

If you need anything or if anyone is bullying you, immediately inform Draco or Severus, They will take care of it. I still wonder why you did not let me enroll you a Arianne Malfoy. It would have made sure people don't bother my baby girl.

Your brother Lucius although not so happy with a Malfoy being in Ravenclaw, calmed down after I reminded him you were at least not in Gryffindor.

I am sending you the books you asked for through Severus. Your sister went on another shopping spree last week to buy you blue cloth for dresses. Be warned. She is sending you a hoard of blue dresses.

Oh my darling girl, I miss you so much. Please keep writing to your old man.

To the love of my life, my sweet baby girl,

Your father, Abraxus."

I was almost in tears reading Papa's letter. I missed him too. In the few years I had been with him, I had grown close to him.

I wanted to reply to their letters but my stomach was growling with hunger. I decided to have a bite before replying and went downstairs to grab a bite. I go to the great hall and have toast and bacon and wash it down with some orange juice. Then I hurry outside, and bump into Hermione Granger, a Gryffindor, and my partner in Transfiguration for group assignment and practice classes. "_**"Hello Hermione, how are you? Where are you off to so early in the morning on a Saturday?"**_

"Hey Arianne, I am going to the hospital wing to visit Neville. He had an accident in flying class yesterday" she says, "would you like to visit with me?"

"_**Of course Hermione. Let's go right away. I hope it's not anything serious?" **_to which Hermione shakes her head no. So off we go to the hospital wing to see Neville. He is up at that time and drinking some potion. Madame Pomfrey sees us and gives us a silent nod "you girls can visit him for a while, but please be silent. And Longbottom here needs to rest after a while." Hermione assures her that we will be quiet and leave soon, so the healer leaves us to speak with Neville.

"_**Hey Neville, how are you doing now?" **_"Arianne, Hermione, you both came to see me?. Thank you very much. I am doing better than yesterday" he says and winces thinking about something. _**"How exactly did this happen Neville?" **_

"Well I just lost control of my broom and did not know how to stop it. I fell from the top of the Gryffindor tower. Thank Merlin there was some windows to break my fall, or I would have been worse"

Hermione hugs him lightly and says "Oh Neville! Be more careful in future"

We spent a bit more time with Neville, discussing random things about Hogwarts and our classes. After a while Madame Pomfrey comes in with a tray of food for Neville "I am glad to see some color back in your cheeks boy. Your visit did some good to him. Now you girls should be off having lunch and Longbottom here needs to eat his mash and take some potions. Off you go girls." The elderly Healer says with a smile on her face.

"Of course Madame Pomfrey, Thank you for letting us visit Neville" Hermione and I thank her and leave to Lunch wondering how fast time passes by when you are having fun with friends.

We went to the great hall to see most of the students had already finished eating and were leaving. There was nobody at the Ravenclaw table, so, Hermione invited me to eat with her at the Gryffindor table. We were having Lunch when suddenly two people came, lifted Hermione off her seat and hugged her "hey Mione, how come you are late? You..." said one "are never late to anything" and the other boy completed his sentence. Then turning to me, they hugged me and introduced themselves. "Hello there, you must be …" "…Mione's friend. I am…" "Fred and I am his twin…" "George"

They kept doing this thing where they each spoke a part of a sentence and the other completed that sentence. Almost looked like they rehearsed every sentence before speaking, but they just met me._ 'Maybe it's a twin thing',_ I think.

"_**Hello Gred and Forge, Nice to meet you. OOPS! Sorry I mean George and Fred. I am Arianne Thomas", **_I say correcting myself. "No problem Ms. Thomas. We will definitely…" "Start calling ourselves Forge and…" "...Gred. Thanks for that amazing Idea." "We should be off now ladies. Have a nice Lunch" "And once again nice to meet you Arianne" They say, and kiss mine and Hermione's hands in a gentleman like manner but with big grins, and leave.

"_**It was nice meeting your friends Mione; they sure seem like fun people to hang around. Are they Ron's brothers?" **_I ask. "Yes they are Ron's Brothers. They are in Third year." Hermione says.

I nod and continue eating my Lunch. After Lunch, Hermione and I decide to study for a while and go to the Library and finish our assignments, discuss books and classes. At dinner time we go back to the hall and have dinner at our respective tables. I was too tired to even remember about my letters and fall asleep seconds after my head hits the pillow.

I sleep in very late on Sunday, waking up at around 4pm, that too because Luna wakes me up.

We both go to sit by the black lake till dinner time and call it an early night because we had double potions with Hufflepuff the next morning.

Next morning at breakfast, there was a great commotion as Luna and I were about to leave to class. We looked to see all heads turned towards the Gryffindor table, where a dozen screech owls were carrying a large parcel and dropped it in front of Harry Potter. Everyone was wondering what parcel the Boy Who Lived received and from whom.

Later that day, I got to know that it was in fact a broom that he got. Draco, the ever curious, followed him and found out and as usual got jealous and tried to complain to Professor Flitwick, who was obviously in on the secret.

Apparently Harry was selected to play as seeker for the Gryffindor team. And Ron boasted that it was possible because Draco tried to get Harry into trouble and instead got him into the team. Draco was beyond mad at Harry. He thought Harry was someone who had a great life and loved being the centre of attention. Both Draco and I had known many people like that who did almost anything to be the centre of attention, but I knew Harry was not like that. He seemed too humble to be an attention seeker. I tried to explain the same to Drake, but he was blinded by bitterness. So I advised him to try out for the team as well, because he was good at flying and Quidditch too. Drake seemed to have gotten some brilliant Idea about something and giving me a kiss on the cheek, rushed off, saying he had something to do.

Whatever was cooking in Draco's brain, he always seemed to be deep in thought, always planning something secretly with his two new best friends, or should I say servants. He could always be seen with Crabbe and Goyle, who were too eager to do whatever Drake said (too eager to climb the social ladder). Even Blaise was worried, so much so that one day he came to me to discuss Drake's secretive behavior. Blaise suspected something bad was going to happen, that Drake had something really bad planned for someone. We both decided to confront Drake about this, but he was avoiding us like the Plague.

I decided to write to Cissa about this but decided against it as she was sure to discuss it with Luc, and I didn't want Drake to be in trouble with Luc.

Soon It was almost Halloween, and Draco was looking even more smug as the days were going by. I didn't realize just how fast the days were going until one day I woke up to the smell of Baking Pumpkin wafting through the air. It was Halloween today, and Hogwarts celebrated Halloween really grand.

The breakfast table was laden with different food either made from Pumpkin or shaped like one. We had Bat shaped bacon, Pumpkin shaped toast, Pumpkin juice, Pumpkin flavored Coffee, and even Pumpkin Jam.

We even had fun-filled classes. The first class was Herbology, and Madame Sprout let us harvest pumpkins and carve them to decorate the Great Hall with. Then In Transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall deemed that we were ready to practice turning a napkin into a cap/hat. It was supposed to be a group practice class, but as my partner Hermione was not present, Professor let me do it on my own. I was able to turn the napkin into a beautiful hat, and even managed to decorate it beautifully with flowers and ribbons. Professor McGonagall was quite impressed with me and gave ten points to Ravenclaw.

Although I was very happy to earn points for my house, I was still worried about Mione. I saw her at breakfast, excited for her charms class and her first Halloween at Hogwarts, and even saw her when she was going to class. But I didn't see her after that for the whole day.

Later that day as I was going to dinner along with Luna, Padma and a few other girls from my house, I overheard Padma say that her twin in Gryffindor saw Mione in the girl's bathroom, crying her heart out and said she didn't want to be disturbed.

Apparently something serious happened in her charms class. Knowing Mione, it must be that she failed to answer a question or perform some spell they learnt in class 100% correctly. So telling Luna I would go persuade Mione to come to Dinner.

I rushed off to the girls bathroom to hear Mione's sobs from a closed stall. _**Mione, what is wrong. Are you alright? This is Anne. Please come out and tell me what's wrong" **_I say, knocking on the door. "No, please leave me alone Annie. I don't want to speak to anyone right now." Hermione says her sobbing reduces a little. _**Mione, please. You know I am your friend and would do anything to help you. At least tell me what happened". **_I hear footsteps at the other side of the door, and see Mione's feet at the door; she sits down at the door and tells me about her charm's class and how Ron was mocking her. "Oh Mione, you should not cry for what that Idiot of a boy said. He is just jealous that you are better than him at everything. Besides, you know he is wrong about you not having friends. I and Luna are your friends; George and Fred are your friends. We all love you very much. Please, at least open the door, I brought pumpkin pasties for you. Remember how excited you were about your first Halloween at Hogwarts? Come on out, we can go to the hall and enjoy ourselves to our heart's content and show that Weasley that you do in fact have friends and that we all love you very much."

Silence.

I wait and after a while at last, Mione comes out the door wiping her eyes and hugs me. We both turn to leave to the Great Hall, seeing something huge blocking our way. That something was a troll, and he was raising his club to smash us. In a panic, Mione rushes back into the toilet, and drags me in along with her. We crouch down just in time, before the Troll's club come crashing down, breaking the door in half. We both scream and crawl towards the sinks, when we hear someone calling our names. It was Harry, Ron and Luna, come to save us. Luna and Ron try to distract the Troll to let us escape, because his club was already raised about to smash us.

Thankfully the Troll forgets about us, but the bad news was, it was now very interested in Luna, Ron, and Harry who were throwing random bits of wood at it. It went after them and tried to smash them. Ron, Harry and Luna were rooted to the spot too shocked to move. Mione was shouting at them to move, but they didn't listen. They would be smashed in a few seconds if they didn't move.

'_Think Lia, Think. What to do. Protection, __Protego. __There's so many of us, hope this works." I think. _

But suddenly a semi-transparent net like light comes out of my hands, covering all of us, Harry, Ron, Luna, Mione and Me. I feel something warm inside my heart and know for certain how to control it. Just as the Troll's club smashes into my Protego charm, I make sure to make the net like thing a little stretchy so that the Club bounces back with double the force the troll used. The club hits the Troll on the head very hardly and it falls down, unconscious. We turn around to leave before the Troll comes back to its sense, but hear footsteps walking our way. Professor McGonagall was the first to enter the bathroom, closely followed by Severus, with Professor Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart.

Severus bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Ron and Harry. Harry had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white. "What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice. Harry and Luna looked at Ron, who was still standing with his wand in the air. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"

Severus gave Harry a sharp look, which I knew meant he was disappointed in him. Harry looked at the floor. We were all wondering what to tell the teachers when a small voice came from behind me, "Please, Professor McGonagall — they were looking for me." "Miss Granger!" Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last. "I went looking for the troll because I — I thought I could deal with it on my own — you know, because I've read all about them." Ron dropped his wand. I was shocked; I had never, till date, seen Mione lie to a teacher. "If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."

"Well — in that case…" said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?" Hermione hung her head. Harry was speechless. Hermione was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here she was, pretending she had, to get us all out of trouble, even though some of us (cough, cough, RON) had hurt her.

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses." Hermione left. Professor McGonagall turned to Harry, Luna, Ron, and me. "Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win your houses five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go." We hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until we reached the stairs. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.

The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. From that moment on, Mione, Luna, Harry, Ron and I became quite good friends. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.

**A/N: **

**Hello all. How's the story so far? **

**Thanks for reading, following and favoriting my story.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Hello everyone. Thank you for the positive messages: Jes 3 and PBloveslesmis. I am excited that you people like this story. Shoutout to Haseena_Julfo_Wali and Candy_Biscuit :D 3 :P **

**If you like my story Favorite it and if you want to know when I update a new chapter follow this story. **

**We are almost to the end of the first book. **

**Disclaimer: None of the original Characters or the original plotlines belong to me. They belong to J.K. Rowling 3. I own only my OC and my storyline.**

**Here's the Chappie:**

**Chapter 12 The Philosopher's stone**

Finally! The day we were all waiting for and the day Harry was practicing so hard for, the day of Harry's first Quidditch match. Mione and Ron said he seemed nervous today, and hardly ate any breakfast. I sit with the Gryffindors, Wearing a red blouse over my jeans, wearing my Blue Rain boots, as the sky was pretty cloudy. I even wore a Blue and Red Scarf in support of Gryffindor.

As we all sitting down in the first row, ready for the match to begin, who do we see coming our way but my dear cousin, Drake. He looked pissed off to see me in Gryffindor colors. "Ari, why are you supporting Gryffindor scum? They are good for nothings. If you knew what's good for you, you would be sitting with us, supporting Slytherins, who have been winning for centuries. We are the best and you better change teams. You wouldn't want to associate with these filthy half-bloods and muggles. Come." He said pulling me by the hand towards Slytherin stands.

"_**Drake, Let go. I am supporting Gryffindor because my friend is playing for the team. I don't know who will win, and even if Gryffindor loses, I will still stick by my decision. Not everything is like what they teach at home, Blood status is not everything. I found true friends here. Look Drake, when you try-out for the team and play, I will support you. But right now, this is my choice Please leave me be"**_

Draco leaves in a worse mood than when he came. I know he is hurt, but he has to know that he can't just avoid me for the whole year and act as if nothing happened all of a sudden. So, instead of thinking about how much I hurt him, I decide to concentrate on the match. The players were just entering the ground. The match begins, and Harry seems to be doing fine, until suddenly out of nowhere his broom acts up and he is hanging on to it by his hands. "It's Snape" Hermione shouts, looking through binoculars, and rushes off. I grab the binoculars and see that Severus was muttering something, but Quirrell was also saying something without breaking eye contact with Harry. They must be helping Harry by muttering counter-curses to some curse put on his broom. Severus could never hurt any innocent and Quirrell didn't look like the type to curse the Boy Who Lived. I looked on as suddenly there was a commotion by the teachers stand, and Severus looked away as his coat had caught on fire. Harry's broom was still going out of control even more, which confirmed my theory that Severus was saying counter-curses. But what made me suspicious was the fact that the moment Quirrell fell down, Harry's broom became stable again. 'I need to keep an eye on Quirrell, apparently not everyone is as they seem' I think.

Soon the match resumes, Harry spots the snitch and rushes off to catch it, going lower and lower, until suddenly he falls to the ground looking like he would be sick, instead throwing up the snitch. He has caught the Snitch! Harry Won! Gryffindor Wins!

We all cheer for Harry and celebrate in the Gryffindor common rooms. Then Gryffindor Prefect, Percy who was also Ron's brother, accompanies me back to Ravenclaw tower, so that I don't get into trouble with other prefects, or Peeves, or worse, Filch.

It was almost Christmas. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and I heard from Ron, that Fred and George were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again. No one could wait for the holidays to start. While our common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Potions classes down in the dungeons, where our breath rose in a mist before us and we had to keep as close as possible to the hot cauldrons, so as to not freeze to death. Harry Ron and Mione were also being secretive and distant to me. They had been to visit Hagrid and he had let slip that whatever the dog (whom Hagrid had named Fluffy) was guarding was somehow related to a Nicolas Flamel. When they suggested that Severus was trying to steal whatever it was I lost my cool and told them that Severus (of course I did not say Severus in front of them, I referred to him as Prof. Snape in front of others) was not the type of a person to steal something. He would never hurt someone, and they thought it best to avoid talking about the topic anywhere near me. I realized this was for the best as I would not be compelled to tell them that I knew who Nicolas Flamel was, because I loved studying about all topics in Wizarding history (well almost) , I knew he was a famous Alchemist, who made the Philosopher's stone. The stone could turn any metal into gold and was used in the potion called Elixir of life, the drinker of which would become immortal. I decided that it would be best if they did not know about the stone, because the Philosophers stone was in safe hands as long as people like Dumbledore, McGonagall and Severus were guarding it.

All those staying at Hogwarts for Christmas had given their names to the Heads of their houses. _'I wish I could stay back_' I thought, because although I missed Cissa and Papa, they would spend the first week or so shopping with me, the rest of the holidays, I would be left to my own devices.

On the day we were supposed to leave for the holidays, I woke up early, packed my wand and a my assignments in my magical undetectably extendable handbag and got ready in a pretty blue skirt and white blouse, wearing my Hogwarts cloak over it, I went to the great hall to say bye to Harry, Fred and George, and Ron who were all staying back at Hogwarts.

I met Mione, Fred and George near the door. I wished them happy holidays, and the twins hugged both of us bye, then Mione and I went up to the Gryffindor table where Harry and Ron were playing Wizard's chess, and wished them happy holidays. Mione and them had a silent (I could hear most of it) conversation about looking at more books at the library. Merlin! I didn't know they were still so adamant about finding Flamel. I smiled to myself '_of course, they are Gryffindors after all' _

All the students are taken to the train in carriages drawn by some creatures I couldn't quite make out, all I could make out was a faint greyish beings that slightly resembled horses/Unicorns, but I could only see them faintly, as if they were semi-transparent.

We all boarded the train excitedly talking about our holiday plans without tiring till we reached Kings cross station. I was disappointed because Cissa, Luc or Papa had not come to pick us up like the other students' parents, but they sent someone from Luc's office to pick us up. I saw Drake's face fall, and in that moment he looked like any other normal child who just missed his parents. Not like the bully he was at school. The ride home was awkwardly silent, because we both knew that the other sad, but couldn't comfort each other because of all the stupid stuff at school. At last Drake broke the silence, "Arianne, Ari am sorry I behaved like a brat, I was just trying to fit in, and Slytherin is so unlike I expected, it's a place where if you're not mean and bully people enough, you get bullied and picked on all your life at Hogwarts. Besides I was just angry that you were not on my side. I understand they ae your friends and all that, but I thought I was more important to you than them."

"_**Oh Drake! Of course you are important. I love you. But you were being rude towards my friends. You know you are becoming more and more like Luc every day. I miss that Drake who was kind to Minty when she was punished for something, I miss my Drake who thought that hurting someone or making someone cry was wrong. Now, you always laugh at other's misery and bully them."**_

"Ari, I am not that bad, besides potter is the one you should beware of. He has it so good being the savior, loved by all, everyone shows favoritism to him, after all he is the boy who lived. They think he is this golden boy, just because he is the chosen one. Tell me, what did he ever do to deserve all that respect and love when even without knowing me, people expect me to be bad and hate me just because I am a Slytherin and a Malfoy? I have decided that I will behave exactly like people expect me to. What good is it if I am still the villain even if I try to be good?"

I was shocked. Is this how people thought about Malfoys? Well, I couldn't blame Drake for thinking like that, even I hated Slytherins just because they were in that house I expected them to be evil. And I had no Idea Drake thought Harry had it easy, if only he could know everything Harry had gone through.

We reach home before I could say anything, and Drake rushes out of the carriage. I follow him with my bag slung over my shoulder. We are greeted by Papa, who hugs us both and apologizes saying "I am really sorry for not being there, we had a meeting with some people from the Ministry. Luc and Cissa will be here shortly" and they were. They came out of Luc's study along with some people from Luc's house. "Mr. Malfoy we take your leave. Happy holidays Master Malfoy and Miss Malfoy" They say shaking hands with Papa and leaving.

"Hello you two, we all missed you." Cissa greeted us with a hug and kiss, and although Drake said she was smothering him, I knew he secretly enjoyed being Mommy's darling son, but was afraid of what Luc would think. "Am proud of you son" He said giving a nod to Drake and ignoring me altogether. Typical of Luc, he would ignore me and expect I would plead with him to talk to me, but this time I decided to ignore him.

"Go on to your rooms and get some rest before dinner." Papa said. We both ran upstairs to our rooms. I missed my friends already.

At dinner Cissa said we were going shopping tomorrow, to buy gifts for our friends.

I decided to make a list of gifts I wanted to buy.

_LIST:_

_Drake: Assorted chocolates, new jacket at Bizzes, Tickets to his favorite Quidditch team's match (Belgians)_

_Papa: Tickets to his favorite wizard singer Bethany Wizo and some fun looking ties or hats (decide at shop)_

_Severus: Some Dark green and dark blue robes, New potions equipment, few rare ingredients, books._

_Cissa: Some Jewelry and dresses, Special date with Luc._

_Luc: Special date with Cissa (Remember to book the whole Lemiens restaurant for private event)_

_Mione: rare books and full year's witch weekly subscription_

_Harry: New Quidditch cleaning set and gloves, new shoes, Quidditch player's tips, Chocolates._

_Luna: unusual trinkets and books, Chocolates_

_Neville: Diary which could be used as reminder, Herbology books, Chocolates, Good grip shoes._

_Ron: Chocolates of all types, few of the Chocolate frog cards he wanted, Blue Sweater_

_Fred n George: Latest pranks, books about pranks and ingredients to make their own, chocolates, Quidditch equipment (Gloves, Face guards etc.)_

_Blaise: Chocolates and Quidditch tickets to accompany Draco_

_Dumbledore: Unusual looking Ties, Hats and other trinkets, variety of muggle candy and best elf made wine._

_Prof. McGonagall: Red and Gold Witches hat, Chocolates_

_Prof. Sprout: Chocolates, Fudge, rare plant seeds_

_Hagrid: book about rare magical creatures, Fire whiskey_

_Prof. Quirrell: How to protect against Vampires full book series, anti-vampire siren_

_Prof. Sinistra: star-globe, chocolates, _

_Prof. Hooch: Tickets to Irish team's Quidditch match_

_Prof. Flitwick: Chocolates, Fire whiskey_

_Madame Pomfrey: Medi-witch books, journal subscriptions she always wanted, calming tea_

_Then I remembered my family from Le ciel._

_Elliot: Pretty frocks, shoes, other fashion accessories, handmade card, muggle chocolates, _

_John: Muggle sports kits, Shoes and Coat, toys_

_Uncle Eddie: work gloves, shoes, Tie, Hat, _

_Aunt Jane: Fashionable hats and gloves, violin, Money for a special date night with Uncle Eddie._

_Uncle Sean: books signed by his favorite authors Shakespeare and Charles Dickens._

Satisfied with my list, I blow out the lights and go to bed. The next day was very busy buying gifts for all on my list, buying some books for me as well, then I go to Gringotts to exchange some of my magical money to muggle money, and along with Papa go shopping in muggle London.

I loved spending time in Muggle London, it was filled with things I had never seen before, I bought a few notebooks, pens, sketches, and other muggle stuff. I bought all the things on my list and we went back home. I spent the rest of the day making handmade cards for all my friends, Uncle Eddie, Aunt Jane and Uncle Sean, and packing all the gifts. After a few hours everything was ready so I called Dobby and asked him to deliver the gifts to the respective Christmas trees.

Soon it was Christmas morning; I woke up all excited to see my gifts. I was the first to wake up, so I ran to the kitchen to wish my elf friends, I saw them busy preparing a grand breakfast, with eggnog and cake. I hugged Minty, Misty and Dobby, wished them a merry Christmas, and gifted scarfs and blankets. They thanked me and gave me my gift, minty had made a crown out of flowers, Misty made a bouquet and Dobby made me a nice cloak of flowers.

I thanked them, and put a stasis charm on them and wore them. (Wandless magic, but Dobby, Minty and Misty knew about it)

I went into the living room to see Drake waiting to open gifts, sitting on the sofa by the Christmas tree, I went and sat by him, after hugging him and wishing him. At last after a while, Cissa, Luc and Papa came downstairs. We all opened our gifts, Cissa oohed and aahed when opening mine and Draco's gifts, Papa loved our gifts and Luc thanked Drake and merely nodded at my gift. I was excited as usual to open my gifts, but a little disappointed that Luc didn't like my gifts. Draco loved my gift and hugged me. He also got a gold watch from Cissa that belonged to her grandfather. Luc gifted him with a villa in Paris to spend the holidays with friends. Papa gave Drake a vault at Gringotts.

Next came my turn, I got an all-expenses paid trip to Paris, Italy and America with a plus two (definitely going with Luna and Mione) from Cissa, Golden Necklace and a Topaz chain sets and a Villa in Italy from Luc, Papa gifted me an Emerald Jewelry set that belonged to my great grandmother, and a vault at Gringotts, although I already had one.

Drake had gifted me with books in Ancient Runes, Arithmancy and Alchemy which were almost impossible to get by, Severus had sent me expert level potion making book, with tips and tricks written by himself, Mione had got me Chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts every flavor beans, Ron sent me a blue sweater which he said his mom made, and some home-made chocolate fudge that tasted delicious. Harry got me a transfiguration for advanced level student's book. Fred gifted me with a beautiful Blue butterfly hair clasp, George sent me some chocolates. I got a pair of pumpkin, mistletoe and Holly earrings from Luna. Neville sent me his grandmothers Fudge and a few books. Finally, Blaise had got me a Quidditch broom, the Nimbus 2001. I was so happy seeing all my gifts. Next, we all had breakfast after which Cissa started giving instructions to Minty and Misty about the preparations for tonight's Ball.

Taking Papa's leave, I packed all the gifts I bought for Elli's family into a big bag and left to meet them in Luc's Muggle car, which was driven by an old man who was a squib. He took me to Elli's house, and the door sprung open as soon as I knocked. Elli was at the door, jumping up and down, excited to see me. "Oh Jesus Anne! I am so glad to see you. We were all waiting for you" she said, inviting me inside. I went in and was greeted by the familiar smell of cake wafting through the house, Aunt Jane was in the kitchen, busily making food, as soon as she saw me she stopped her work and came to hug me and kiss me wishing a merry Christmas. Uncle Ed and Sean were in the backyard making barbeque for our lunch. John was excitedly dancing at the tree, I silently went and placed all my gifts by the tree and went to hug him a merry Christmas. He squealed and hugged me tightly when he saw me, "Aniseed, you are here! did you see all the gifts at the tree!" he said clapping his hands. _**"Hello John. I would never miss visiting my favorite baby cousin now, would I?" **_ John pouted and said "I am not a baby anymore! I am 4 and a half year old and very tall. I am a big man now. Mommy says I can go to school next year"

"_**Let me see. Oh yes, you look so tall, and all grown up. You're not a baby anymore; you are my favorite big cousin. Alright?" **_I asked to which he nodded. Soon everyone else gathered around the tree and started singing Christmas carols after which came the gift opening.

I was so happy that I could experience Christmas with both the Malfoys and the Tanners. They all loved my gifts. John especially was jumping around with excitement because I had got him the toy he had wanted and wished for all year. Aunt Jane and Uncle Ed and Uncle Sean were happy too. I got a whole chocolate cake made by Aunt Jane, Uncle Sean had gotten me more story books, Uncle Ed made me a beautiful rocking chair. Elliot had made a hat for me with her own hands, without any help from Aunt Jane, and John had made me a beautiful card and a wooden doll (with help from Uncle Ed).

We all sang some more carols, remembering the good ole' days and had some cake, some hot chocolate, and barbequed chicken. After having a fun filled Lunch, Elli, John and I started playing around the house. Later at around 2, I took their leave and went home to get ready for tonight's Malfoys' Christmas ball.

I went home to see Cissa pacing the floor in front of the fireplace. _'Oh no! I guess I am late', _I smile awkwardlyand follow an annoyed Cissa upstairs where misty is already waiting with warm water for my bath. After bathing, Cissa helps me into my dress, and magically styles my hair into a Dutch flower bun. She puts on some lip color onto my lips and deems me ready for the Ball. There is a knock on the door, and Misty opens it to Luc and Drake who look very tidy and handsome in their stylish robes. Luc is wearing a black robe with Dark green trimmings to match Cissa's Green dress with black trimmings. Draco has on a Black Robe, with white undershirt, and a black and red tie to match my Red dress with a broad black belt.

The men escort us to the Ball and we greet the guests. After dancing for a while with Draco and Blaise, (and saying no to Crabbe a million times), It's time for dinner, after which Draco and I are sent upstairs to bed.

**A/N: So that was Arianne's Christmas. This chapter is especially for the person who asked what happens to Arianne's friend Elliot and her family now that Lia is a Malfoy. **

**I didn't plan to write a Christmas celebration with Elliot's family, but I got this Idea when you asked if she forgets all about her friends. I had initially intended to re-introduce them later on, but **

**If you like the story so far, favorite it and leave me comments on your thoughts. I would be as excited as opening Christmas presents if I got more comments and messages. 3 **


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Hello everyone 3 :P **** Thanks for sticking with me till now. For those confused about the POV, its Arianne's POV, its kinda like her diary.**

**If you like my story Favorite it and if you want to know when I update a new chapter follow this story. This is the second to last chapter in the first HP book.**

**Disclaimer: None of the original Characters or the original plotlines belong to me. They belong to J.K. Rowling 3. I own only my OC and my storyline.**

**Chapter 13 - The Puzzles**

Today I am going back to Hogwarts because start of term is tomorrow, and although not proud to say this, but I was excited to be going back at last. I loved my father, Brother and Sister-in-law, don't get me wrong, but I was bored all through the holidays. For one, I had to go on a long shopping trip with Cissa, after which she and Luc went off on some business trips leaving Draco and me to our own devices, because Papa had already left for a peaceful nature trip to our private island for his health. I was looking forward to having a heart-to-heart talk with Drake but he was avoiding me and even resorted to going off to Blaise's house for the holidays. He left to school along with Blaise, and Cissa who was back from her trip abroad, took me to school via side-apparition.

One thing I was happy about other than the fact that I would be with my friends was the fact that they had almost given up hope of ever finding Flamel in a library book, even though Harry was still sure he'd read the name somewhere. Once term had started, they were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during their breaks. Harry had even less time than the other two, because Quidditch practice had started again. Gryffindor captain Wood was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't dampen his spirits.

But my hope was short-lived, because one day, Harry, Mione, and Ron came rushing to me with a book, the book which I knew contained information about Flamel. "Anne we found him. We found Flamel. Listen to this:

_The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. _

_There have been many reports of the Sorcerer's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight)" _said Hermione, "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Sorcerer's Stone!"

I gave a look of surprise and congratulated them on finding Flamel at last. Harry had some more news. Apparently Severus was refereeing the next match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and they all thought that Severus wanted to hurt Harry during the match.

As the match drew nearer, Harry became more and more nervous. The rest of the Gryffindor team was nervous too, because they thought that Severus would not be a fair Referee and tis was their one chance to get nearer to winning the Quidditch cup.

The day of the match, although Harry was very nervous, he seemed to become very calm and collected the moment he saw Dumbledore sitting in the stands. Maybe he thought Severus would not hurt him now that the headmaster was here. I was relieved too because I was worried that should the person trying to curse Harry the day of his first match try again, Severus wouldn't be able to concentrate on helping Harry because he would be busy refereeing the match to notice. Now that Dumbledore was here, everyone was safe.

The match went by very fast, and before we knew it, Harry had caught the snitch. We all cheer and shout and clap. I accompany all other Gryffindor students along with Mione and Ron. We wait for Harry to come along with his teammates, but don't find him. He does not make an appearance till after an hour or so. He looks as if he had been running from a ghoul. "What's wrong Harry? Where were you? We have been waiting for you all day." Mione asks him. Harry out of breath says "It's Snape. It always has been. I saw him in the forest threatening Professor Quirrell. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy — and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus pocus' — I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through —"

"So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" said Hermione in alarm. "It'll be gone by next Tuesday," said Ron. "Never mind that now," said Harry breathlessly. "Let's find an empty room; you wait 'til you hear this…" He made sure Peeves wasn't inside before shutting the door behind them, and then he told them what he'd seen and heard. "So we were right, it _is _the Sorcerer's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrell to help him get.

I am surprised to hear their conversation. I rush to te dungeons to find a sour Severus who is angry that Gryffindor won the match. I close the door to his classroom and lock it before giving Severus a lecture _**"You need to be more careful. I have no idea what you are playing at with warning Prof. Quirrell, but a student overheard you and now him and his friends think you are trying to steal the Sorcerer's stone."**_

"So you think I am after the stone as well?"

"_**No Severus, I don't think you are after the stone. I am sure you are guarding it, just like I believed you were trying to save Harry when everyone else thought you were cursing him. And I have inkling that it was Quirrell who was cursing Harry and even today, you were just putting up an act in front of him to protect your cover." **_

"Very well, you go and rest now. I will guard the stone and also make sure no dumb students meddle with something they should stay out of." Severus said with a smile on his face.

Prof. Quirrell seemed to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'd stopped trying to steal the stone yet. Every time we passed the third-floor corridor, Harry, Ron, and Hermione would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside.

Thankfully Hermione however, had more on her mind than the Sorcerer's Stone. She had started drawing up study schedules and color coding all her notes and kept nagging Harry and Ron to start preparing for the exams as well.

The teachers piled so much homework on us that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. Hermione and I were reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood to each other or practicing wand movements. Moaning and yawning, Harry and Ron spent most of their free time in the library with us, trying to get through all their extra work.

"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. It was the first really fine day they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue, and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming. We all looked up from our books when we heard Ron say, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

"Jus' lookin'," he said, in a shifty voice that got our interest at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," said Ron impressively. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's St—"

"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," said Harry, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy —"

"SHHHH!" said Hagrid again. "Listen — come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh —"

"See you later, then," said Harry. Hagrid shuffled off.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione thoughtfully. _**"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?" **_I asked.

"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Ron, who'd had enough of working. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.

"Dragons!" he whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: _Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide. _"

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," said Harry.

"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden — anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."

"But there aren't wild dragons in _Britain_?" said Harry.

"Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind has to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" said Hermione.

Harry, Mione and Ron went to Hagrid's Hut that evening, I couldn't go because I had a study session with Luna and Patil.

They came back that evening and told me that Hagrid got a Dragon's egg from some peddler, and was hatching it in his hut. One day they said that the egg hatched and it was a Norwegian ridgeback, and Hagrid named it Norbert. Then another day Harry , Mione and Ron said the dragon bit Ron, and even bit Hagrid.

"_**First off, Ron the bite may be poisonous, so you better get it checked with Madame Pomfrey, Secondly the dragon has to go. It is far too dangerous. Think of what might happen if the Dragon broke lose in school, or if it burnt down Hagrid's hut?"**_

"Yes, but what should we do? Hagrid is already too attached to Norbert. He would never agree to let go of Norbert in the wild. He thinks it's a baby not able to take care of itself."

"Charlie" said Harry suddenly, looking at Ron. "I am Ron not Charlie. Charlie's my brother mate" Ron says looking perplexed. "No Ron. Your brother Charlie is a Dragon keeper. Maybe he can take care of Norbert. Let's talk to Hagrid about it and write a letter to Charlie." Harry says, rushing off along with Mione, to talk to Hagrid while I accompany Ron to the infirmary.

Harry and Mione came back with good news that although difficult at the beginning, Hagrid gave in to parting with Norbert, and they had already written to Charlie regarding this. We got a reply from Charlie saying he would send his friends to pick up Norbert, and asked us to bring him with us, up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday.

Harry also said that Draco was stalking them, most probably to get them into trouble. As it was too late to change plans, we decided to stick to the plan, Harry brought out his Invisibility cloak to cover himself, Mione, and Norbert's cage. I felt the cloak's material and suddenly I felt a warm feeling as if the magic woven into the cloak was responding to me, and I knew that I could project a shield similar to the magic in the cloak. I tried it and after a few trials it worked. We were now covered in a bigger invisible cloak type of thing. We went up the tower to see Drake standing there along with Professor McGonagall. Apparently he got to know our plan about Norbert and tried to get us caught.

Professor McGonagall was in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net and had Drake by the ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you —"

"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming — he's got a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on — I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

I felt bad for Drake. But we had to concentrate on the task at hand. As soon as the coast was clear, I cancelled the cloak, and we waited for Charlie's friends. Too bad Ron couldn't be here to meet his brother's friends, but he was in the hospital wing because his bite had swollen.

About ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness.

Charlie's friends were a cheery lot. They showed Harry and Hermione the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it and then Harry and Hermione shook hands with the others and thanked them very much.

At last, Norbert was going… going… gone.

"Let's go" Mione said glad that Norbert was in safe hands at last, _**"You carry on, I want to stay here a while" **_I said, because I wanted to go check on Drake.

After a while I turn to go look for Drake, when I see Harry had forgotten his Cloak here. '_I hope they did not get seen. How could they have forgotten this here.' _I thought taking the cloak, and putting it around me, going all the way to Slytherin Common room and waited patiently for Draco to come by. Finally I saw him turning the corner, looking frustrated and angry. Quickly I fold the cloak and hide it away in my bag.

"_**Drake, what happened?" **_I ask, and he just shrugs saying he got into detention along with Harry Mione and Neville. I just put my hands around him to comfort him. _**"you know Drake, you don't have to try so hard to please Luc. Stop all this. Please" **_I say.

"You don't get it Aria, Harry potter deserves this." He says, shrugging me off and walks off into the Slytherin common room. I stay standing there for a while, not able to understand what I need to do, to get back my best friend Draco who was kind and fair to all, back when I first met him.

The next day, from being one of the most popular and admired people at the school, Harry was suddenly the most hated. Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on him, because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the house cup. Everywhere Harry went, people pointed and didn't trouble to lower their voices as they insulted him. Slytherins, on the other hand, clapped as he walked past them, whistling and cheering, "Thanks Potter, we owe you one!" they said. Although Drake was also jeering at Harry, he was doing so half-heartedly. I saw a doubt in his eyes, as if he was not sure about what he was doing. So, I decided that I would wait patiently for Drake to turn around.

The day of the detention came and Drake came back pretty shaken. He was complaining that there was some creature in the dark forest that tried to eat him. Drake kept going on and on about complaining to Luc about this. This time I agreed with him. It was irresponsible of them and I was aghast that they would let first years go into the forest for their detention, that too four students with only one chaperone, and that too, they were split into groups. I distracted Drake by reminding him of the coming exams and asking about his preparations.

I found out from Harry about what happened at detention and was taken aback by the creature that was some form of Voldemort's life, in the forest. Thank Merlin for the Centaur that helped Harry. Although we were shaken up by all this, soon we forgot all about it because exams were approaching fast. Every evening I would sit with Drake, in Severus' classroom for an hour studying before going off to the Library or the black lake, to study with Mione, Luna, Harry and Ron.

Soon it was exams week, and after writing every exam, We would all go to sit by the black lake, Luna,Mione, and I discussing our answers, while Ron and Harry nodded off before we had to study for the next exam. After the last exam we sat down like that, when Luna said that she had forgotten her quills and inkpot in the exam room, so we both went to retrieve it, we met Padma on the way, she brought Luna's things to her. Luna left with Padma to dinner and asked me to bring the others. I had a foreboding and uneasy feeling, so I went back to check up on the trio, only to find Mione and Ron arguing about something.

"_**What is wrong? Where is Harry?" **_I ask them. "He said he just thought about something and is at Hagrid's hut, he asked us to wait for him here." Ron says. We wait for a while and see Harry running towards us in a hurry, he points towards the castle and we all rush inside, without speakin to each other at all until we came to a halt in the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy after the grounds.

"We've got to go to Dumbledore," said Harry. "Hagrid told that stranger who sold him the Dragon egg, how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak — it must've been easy, once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn't stop him. Where's Dumbledore's office?"

Harry and Ron looked around, as if hoping to see a sign pointing them in the right direction. They had never been told where Dumbledore's office. _**"I know where Dumbledore's office is, this way"**_ I say, leading them towards the headmaster's office, because this was a genuine emergency, although it could never have been Severus under the cloak, it might well have been Voldemort or one of his followers.

"What are you four doing inside?" It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large pile of books.

"We want to see Professor Dumbledore," said Hermione, rather bravely, "See Professor Dumbledore? Why?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do. Harry swallowed — now what? "It's sort of secret," he said, but he wished at once he hadn't, because Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared.

"Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago," she said coldly. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once." "He's _gone_?" said Harry frantically. "_Now?_"

"Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Potter, he has many demands on his time – "

"But this is important." said Ron. "Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Weasley?"

"Look," said Harry, throwing caution to the winds, "Professor — it's about the Sorcerer's Stone —"

Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn't that. The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms, but she didn't pick them up. "How do you know —?" she spluttered.

"Professor, I think — I _know _— that Sn— that someone's going to try and steal the Stone. I've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore." Harry said. '_good catch Harry, If you said it was Severus, McGonagall would have laughed it off' _I thought. Professor eyed us all with a mixture of shock and suspicion.

"Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow," she said finally. "I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected."

At that moment I knew we had to tell Severus about this so he could help us, but realized that trio would not agree, so I excused myself n tried to find him, but luck had it that he met us as we were walking by discussing plans,

"But how can we check on the sto —" Hermione gasped. Harry and Ron wheeled round. Severus was standing there. "Good afternoon," he said smoothly. They stared at him. "You shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said, with a rare smile. I tried desperately to make him use Legilimens on Harry or someone to see our predicament, but he did not notice.

"We were —" Harry began, without any idea what he was going to say. Severus cut him off saying, "You want to be more careful, hanging around like this, and people will think you're up to something. And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more points, can it?"

Harry flushed. The Gryffindors turned to go outside, but Severus called them back. "Be warned, Potter — any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you."

He strode off in the direction of the staffroom. Out on the stone steps, Harry turned to the others.

"Right, here's what we've got to do," he whispered urgently. "One of us has got to keep an eye on Snape — wait outside the staff room and follow him if he leaves it. Hermione or Arianne, one of you'd better do that."

"Why me?" We both said at the same time.

"It's obvious," said Ron. "You can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, you know." He put on a high voice, "'Oh Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried; I think I got question fourteen _b _wrong… '"

"Oh, shut up," said Hermione, but she agreed to go and watch out for Snape.

"_**I have a better plan, I know Se.. Snape has to go to some dinner with somebody, so we need not bother with him foiling our plans. We could go and check to see if Fluffy is still guarding the stone, if yes, we could wait around there till Dumbledore comes back from the Ministry" **_I say, remembering that Severus and Luc were having one of their men's night out thing tonight. If only he would stay back. Harry said we better use the invisibility cloak, but I already could project an invisibility cloak type shield, so I concentrated on covering the four of us, and after a few seconds, we were all under the cover of my invisibility field.

We didn't meet anyone else until we reached the staircase up to the third floor. Peeves was bobbing halfway up, loosening the carpet so that people would trip.

"Who's there?" he said suddenly as they climbed toward him. He narrowed his wicked black eyes. "Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?"

He rose up in the air and floated there, squinting at them. "Should call Filch, I should, if something's a-creeping around unseen."

Harry had a sudden idea. "Peeves," he said, in a hoarse whisper, "the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible."

Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot off the stairs. "So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Baron, Sir," he said greasily. "My mistake, my mistake — I didn't see you — of course I didn't, you're invisible — forgive old Peevsie his little joke, sir."

"I have business here, Peeves," croaked Harry. "Stay away from this place tonight."

"I will, sir, I most certainly will," said Peeves, rising up in the air again. "Hope your business goes well, Baron, I'll not bother you." And he scooted off.

"_Brilliant_, Harry!" whispered Ron. A few seconds later, we were there, outside the third-floor corridor — and the door was already ajar. _'If someone was here guarding the stone then the door wouldn't be ajar, so Voldemort or his follower must already be inside'_ I think rushing along with everyone.

"Well, there you are," Harry said quietly, "Snape's already got past Fluffy."

Seeing the open door somehow seemed to impress upon all of us what was facing us. Underneath the cloak, Harry turned to us and said "If you want to go back, I won't blame you, You can take my cloak, just in case"

"Don't be stupid," said Ron. "We're coming," Hermione said and I nodded _**"We are in this together Harry" **_and Harry pushed the door open.

As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met our ears. All three of the dog's noses sniffed madly in our direction, even though it couldn't see us.

"What's that at its feet?" Hermione whispered.

"Looks like a harp," said Ron. "Snape must have left it there."

"It must wake up the moment you stop playing," said Harry. "Well, here goes…"

He put Hagrid's flute to his lips and blew. It wasn't really a tune, but from the first note the beast's eyes began to droop. Harry hardly drew breath. Slowly, the dog's growls ceased — it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep.

"Keep playing," Ron warned Harry as we crept toward the trapdoor. We could feel the dog's hot, smelly breath as they approached the giant heads. "I think we'll be able to pull the door open," said Ron, peering over the dog's back. "Want to go first, Hermione?"

"No, I don't!" Mione said, "All right." Ron gritted his teeth and stepped carefully over the dog's legs. He bent and pulled the ring of the trapdoor, which swung up and open.

"What can you see?" Hermione said anxiously.

"Nothing — just black — there's no way of climbing down, we'll just have to drop."

Harry, who was still playing the flute, waved at Ron to get his attention and pointed at himself.

"You want to go first? Are you sure?" said Ron. "I don't know how deep this thing goes. Give the flute to Hermione so she can keep him asleep."

Harry handed the flute over. In the few seconds' silence, the dog growled and twitched, but the moment Hermione began to play, it fell back into its deep sleep.

Harry climbed over it and looked down through the trapdoor. There was no sign of the bottom.

He lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his fingertips. Then he looked up at Ron and said, "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"

"Right," said Ron.

"See you in a minute, I hope…"

And Harry let go, after what felt like eternity, we heard him shout "It's okay! it's a soft landing, you can jump!"

Ron followed right away. Next I jumped down and landed on something which was kind of soft and weird to touch. Next the music stopped and mione jumped, we could hear fluffy growl and bark, but we were all safely in. "We must be miles under the school," Mione thought looking up at the postage stamp sized hole

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really," said Ron. "_Lucky_!" shrieked Hermione. "Look at you all!"

She leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles. As for Harry and Ron, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing. I struggled and reached the wall too. Hermione and I, had managed to free ourselves before the plant got a firm grip. We watched in horror as the two boys fought to pull the plant off them, but the more they strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them.

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is — it's Devil's Snare!" "Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help," snarled Ron, leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around his neck. "Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" said Hermione.

"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with it as it curled around his chest.

"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare… what did Professor Sprout say? " She was trying to remember. _**"Ofcourse! it likes the dark and the damp."**_ I remembered "So light a fire!" Harry choked.

"Yes — of course — but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands. "HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

"Oh, right!" said Hermione, and we whipped out our wands, waved it, muttered a spell "Lumos maxima" and sent a jet of bright Light at the plant. In a matter of seconds, the two boys felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from their bodies, and they were able to pull free.

"Lucky you both pay attention in Herbology" said Harry as he joined us by the wall, wiping sweat off his face.

"Yeah," said Ron, "and lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis — 'there's no wood,' _honestly_."

"This way," said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.

All we could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downwards.

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered. We listened and could hear a soft rustling and clinking coming from up ahead.

"Do you think it's a ghost?"

"_**I don't know… sounds like wings to me." **_

"There's light ahead — I can see something moving."

We reached the end of the passageway and saw a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" said Ron.

"Probably," said Harry. "They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once… well, there's no other choice… I'll run."

He took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms, and sprinted across the room, but nothing happened. He reached the door untouched. He pulled the handle, but it was locked. Soon we all followed him and tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermione tried the Alohomora charm.

"Now what?" said Ron. "These birds… they can't be here just for decoration," said Hermione.

They watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering —_glittering_?

"They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly. "They're _keys_! Winged keys — look carefully. So that must mean…" he looked around the chamber while the other two squinted up at the flock of keys. "… yes — look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"

"But there are _hundreds _of them!" Ron examined the lock on the door.

"We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one — probably silver, like the handle."

The boys each seized a broomstick and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. They grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one. Not for nothing, though, was Harry the youngest Seeker in a century. He had a knack for spotting things other people didn't. After a minute's weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, he noticed a key that probably looked like it would fit because he yelled "That one!" to Ron. "That big one — there — no, there — with bright blue wings — the feathers are all crumpled on one side."

Ron went speeding in the direction that Harry was pointing, crashed into the ceiling, and nearly fell off his broom.

"We've got to close in on it!" Harry called, not taking his eyes off the key with the damaged wing. "Ron, you come at it from above — Anne, do the shield charm you did at Halloween and try to catch it or stop it from going down and I'll try and catch it. Right, … NOW!"

Ron dived, my shield charm darted up wards trying to trap it, but leaving room for Harry to fly, the key dodged and Harry streaked after it; it sped toward the wall, Harry leaned forward and with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand. Ron, Hermione and my cheers echoed around the high chamber.

They landed quickly, and Harry ran to the door, the key struggling in his hand. He rammed it into the lock and turned – it worked. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight again, looking very battered.

"Ready?" Harry asked with his hand on the door handle. He pulled the door open as we nodded.

The next chamber was so dark we couldn't see anything at all. But as they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight.

We were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than us, and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing us, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. We all shivered slightly – the towering white chessmen had no faces.

"Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Ron. "We've got to play our way across the room." We could see another door behind the white pieces.

"How?" said Hermione nervously, and Ron replied saying we were going to have to be chessmen.

He walked up to a black knight and put his hand out to touch the knight's horse. At once, the stone sprang to life. The horse pawed the ground and the knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Ron.

"Do we — er — have to join you to get across?" The black knight nodded. Ron turned to the other two.

"This needs thinking about…" he said. "I suppose we've got to take the place of four of the black pieces…"

Harry and Hermione stayed quiet, watching Ron think. Finally he said, "Now, don't be offended or anything, but neither of you are that good at chess —"

"We're not offended," said Harry quickly. "Just tell us what to do."

"Well, Harry, you take the place of the king, Arianne you go take the place of the bishop, and Hermione, you go there instead of that castle." "What about you?"

"I'm going to be a knight," said Ron.

The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because at these words the king, a knight, a bishop, and a castle turned their backs on the white pieces and walked off the board, leaving four empty squares that Harry, Ron, Mione and I took.

"White always plays first in chess," said Ron, peering across the board. "Yes… look…"

A white pawn had moved forward two squares.

Ron started to direct the black pieces. They moved silently wherever he sent them. Arianne — move diagonally four squares to the right."

Our first real shock came when our other knight was taken. The white queen smashed him to the floor and dragged him off the board, where he lay quite still, facedown.

"Had to let that happen," said Ron, looking shaken. "Leaves you free to take that bishop, Hermione, go on."

Every time one of our men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall. Twice, Ron only just noticed in time that Mione and I were in danger. He himself darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as they had lost black ones.

"We're nearly there," he muttered suddenly. "Let me think — let me think…"

The white queen turned her blank face toward him. "Yes…" said Ron softly, "It's the only way… I've got to be taken."

"NO!" We all shouted together.

"That's chess!" snapped Ron. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I make my move and she'll take me — that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Anne!"

"_**But —" **_

"Do you want to stop Snape or not?"

"_**Ron, It's definitely not …." **_

"Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!" There was no alternative. "Ready?" Ron called his face pale but determined. "Here I go — now, don't hang around once you've won."

He stepped forward, and the white queen pounced. She struck Ron hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the floor — Hermione screamed but stayed on her square — the white queen dragged Ron to one side. He looked as if he'd been knocked out.

Shaking, I moved three spaces to the left.

The white king took off his crown and threw it at my feet. We had won. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear.

"You both go ahead. I will stay back with Ron. I will try my best to heal him" Mione said. With one last desperate look back at Ron and Mione, Harry and I charged through the door and up the next passageway.

"_**What if he's —?" **_

"He'll be all right," said Harry, trying to convince himself. "What do you reckon is next?"

"_**We've had Sprout's, that was the Devil's Snare; Flitwick must've put charms on the keys; McGonagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive; that leaves Quirrell's spell, and Se….Snape's." **_

They had reached another door.

"All right?" Harry whispered.

"_**Go on."**_

Harry pushed it open.

A disgusting smell filled our nostrils, making us cover our noses with our robes. Eyes watering, we saw, flat on the floor in front of us, a troll even larger than the one we had tackled on Halloween, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one," Harry whispered as we stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. "Come on, I can't breathe."

He pulled open the next door, tosee nothing as dangerous or frightening as we had expected, but seven bottles sitting innocently on a table.

"Snape's," said Harry. "What do we have to do?"

We stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind us in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward trapping us here.

I saw a roll of paper lying next to the bottles, so I picked it up and read it:

_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind, _

_Two of us will help you, whichever you would find, _

_One among us seven will let you move ahead, _

_Another will transport the drinker back instead, _

_Two among our number hold only nettle wine, _

_Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line. _

_Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore, _

_To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four: _

_First, however slyly the poison tries to hide _

_You will always find some on nettle wine's left side; _

_Second, different are those who stand at either end, _

_But if you would move onward, neither is your friend; _

_Third, as you see clearly, all are different size, _

_Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides; _

_Fourth, the second left and the second on the right _

_Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight. _

Harry looked stumped. "This is it, we are stuck here forever" he said and tried to look around for another way around.

"_**No Harry, we are not. This requires logic and we have all we need to solve this puzzle right on this paper. If only we calm down and think about it, See, 2**__**nd**__** clue says, the 1**__**st**__** and 7**__**th**__** are different but neither is the potion that will take us forward. According to 3**__**rd**__** clue, 3**__**rd**__** and 6**__**th**__** are not poisons and according to the clue, 2**__**nd**__** and 6**__**th**__** are twins and because we already know that 6**__**th**__** doesn't hold poison, so 2 &amp; 6 must definitely be the nettle wines. This brings us to the first clue, 1**__**st**__** and 5**__**th**__** are poisons. Now, where does that leave us?"**_

Harry was taking notes hurriedly and said, " 1st is poison, 2nd nettle wine 3rd is not poison so either onward going or backward potion, 4th is either 5th is poison as well, 6th is nettle wine and no idea about 7th either but definitely not onward so either poison or backward one."

" _**Right, now 1**__**st**__** and 7**__**th**__** are different, but 1 is poison so 7**__**th**__** is definitely not the poison, so it is the potion that will take us backward through the purple flames, now 3**__**rd**__** is not the poison so it is the potion that will take us through the black flame" **_I say holding out the smallest bottle and the 7th bottle. Harry takes a look at it and says "There's only enough there for one of us, that's hardly one swallow." We look at each other, and Harry sighs and says decidedly "You drink that and get back to Ron. Grab the brooms from the flying-key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy — go straight to the owlery, send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him, really."

"_**But Harry — I know in my heart Professor Snape is not in there. What if it's You-know-who in there?" **_

"Well — I was lucky once, wasn't I?" said Harry, pointing at his scar. "I might get lucky again."

I hugged Harry and said, _**"Harry — you're a great wizard, you know. You are Brave, Resourceful and a great friend. Please get out of this alive. Hold up till I come back. I will owl Dumbledore and get back here somehow. I promise I will be here."**_

"You drink first, You are sure which is which, aren't you?"

I nod and take a long drink from the round bottle at the end, and shuddered. "It's not poison?" said Harry anxiously.

"_**No — but it's like ice." **_

"Quick, go, before it wears off."

"_**Good luck — take care." **_

"GO!"

I turn and walked straight through the purple fire and as soon as I go to the other side run to where Ron and Mione were.

"_**Mione, is he? Ron is alright?"**_

"Yes, but Harry, where is he? You went in there with him, where is he, Why didn't he come back with you?"

"_**Mione, no time to explain, we need to leave. Now. Help me lift Ron up." **_We both carry Ron to the next room with the flying keys, and take the brooms up through the trapdoor, past Fluffy who was still sleeping.

"_**Mione take Ron to the Hospital wing, while I go owl Dumbledore"**_

I rush to the owlery and write a hurried note to Dumbledore and call for Hedwig, _**"Hedwig, Harry is in trouble. Get this to Dumbledore as soon as you can." **_I say and give the note to Hedwig.

I rush off to go rescue Harry, when who do I bump into but Professor McGonagall,

"What are you doing up at this hour Ms. Thomas? It is against the rules."

"_**Professor, thank Merlin I found you. Is the headmaster here yet? It's an emergency. Harry is in trouble"**_

As soon as she hears that Harry is in trouble, she nods and takes me to the Headmaster's office. She says "Lemon Drops" to a pair of stone Gargoyles and they reveal a hidden staircase that takes us upstairs. She knocks on the door at the end of the hallway and a voice calls from the other side "Enter"

"Minerva what brings you here? Ah Ms. Thomas! Is everything alright?"

"_**Professor Dumbledore sir, Harry is in trouble. Someone is trying to steal the Philosopher's stone for You-Know-Who, and Harry just went to the other side of the fire, Ron is in the Hospital wing. Please we need your help."**_

The headmaster listens attentively to what I say, and says "Yes I will ask you later how you got involved in all this, but first things first let's go and save Harry. Minerva go and see if Madame Pomfrey needs your help with Mr. Weasley. Now Ms. Malfoy let's go" He says and starts toward the door as soon as McGonagall leaves.

"_**Sir, we don't have much time. Let's apparate there. I know where Harry is. Please hold on to my Hand" **_I say and concentrate on the room with the potions, I could hear Dumbledore was trying to say something along the lines of "But Ms. Thomas it's not P….."

**A/N: It is not possible to apparate inside Hogwarts. Does Arianne find out the hard way, will they be too late to save Harry? GASP!**

**See you soon with the next chapter.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Hey you guys, this is the final chapter in this book. Hope you guys like it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Characters or plotlines of Harry Potter. They all belong to J. . I own only my OCs and my storyline.**

**Chapter 14 – Farewell, for now**

_**Previously:**_

"_**Sir, we don't have much time. Let's apparate there. I know where Harry is. Please hold on to my Hand" **_I say and concentrate on the room with the potions, I could hear Dumbledore was trying to say something along the lines of "But Ms. Thomas it's not P….."

_**Continuation:**_

With a tugging and tingling sensation, we apparate right into the room with the potions and the Black and Purple flames.

"_**Sir we need to go into the Black fire. Please do something. Harry is on the other side."**_

Dumbledore mutters something and the dark flame vanishes, we rush inside to see something Horrible…

There, standing a little ways away from Harry was Quirrell, clutching at his burnt hands in pain. But the thing which made me stand there in shock was the fact that, where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible, chalk white face with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake. _'Voldemort!'_

"Seize him! SEIZE HIM!" shrieked Voldemort again, and Quirrell lunged, knocking Harry clean off his feet landing on top of him, both hands around Harry's neck — Harry's face was scrunched up in pain, Suddenly Quirrell let go of Harry's neck, howling in agony.

"Master, I cannot hold him — my hands — my hands!"

And Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms.

"Then kill him, fool, and be done!" screeched Voldemort.

Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harry, by instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face —

"AAAARGH!"

Coming out of my shock I projected a protective shield on Harry, sending Quirrell flying back , where his back hit a wall hard and he slumped down,

Harry jumped to his feet, ran up to Quirrell, caught his arm, and hung on as tight as he could. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off while Voldemort was yelling at Quirrell "KILL HIM! KILL HIM!"

I tried to pull Harry away, but he had a fast hold on Quirrell and wouldn't let go. After what seemed like hours trying to pry Harry away, he slumped down against me unconscious. Two hands reached to take Harry away from me; I turned to look to see Dumbledore.

He held Harry with one arm, while with the other hand he continued muttering spells directed at Quirrell, who was yelling in pain.

All of a sudden a hoarse voice, the voice of You-Know-Who, shouted at Quirrell "Use the girl. She is powerful. Transfer my soul into her body. You are not strong enough for me. Fast!"

Quirrell stood up with a renewed energy and started muttering curses at me (although he didn't notice that the burns on his body and face, were intensifying and spreading throughout his body with every second). I dodged his curses because of my shield, which automatically came up without me even thinking of it. I concentrated on Quirrell and made sure my shield cornered him slowly, with each step, so that he was trapped in the room with nowhere else to go.

Dumbledore saw what I was doing and cornered him from the other side. But to our astonishment, without us muttering any spell, Quirrell turned to ash in front of our eyes.

Remembering Harry, we both started checking Harry, and breathed a sigh of relief when we could feel a strong pulse. Harry's scar was a painful red, as if he just got hurt.

Dumbledore said "We need to bring him to Madame Pomfrey as soon as possible. Come we must leave."

What we both didn't notice was that behind us, Quirrell's ashes were stirring and formed a face, which was advancing towards us. Only when we stood up to take Harry and leave did I notice it, and projected my shield charm, which dispersed the advancing ashes.

Relieved that it was over at last, we rushed to get Harry to the Hospital wing, where Madame Pomfrey was just finishing tending to Ron's wounds.

It has been 2days since Harry was admitted into the hospital wing, and Mione, Ron and I are worried because we aren't allowed to visit. We went by at least 3 to 5 times a day, to ask Madame Pomfrey if Harry was awake yet. But the answer is always "Not yet"

That evening, I got a note during Lunch:

'_Dear Ms. Thomas,_

_I would like to have a chat with you at around 4pm._

_Headmaster. Dumbledore._

_P.S: lemon drops '_

I spent the rest of the day worrying. _'What does Dumbledore want to speak with me? He warned me not to apparate inside Hogwarts, but I didn't listen, so maybe he will suspend me? What if I am not allowed to study at Hogwarts from next year? Or maybe he will call Luc to discuss what I did.'_

Finally 4pm came; I was standing in front of the stone Gargoyles that led to Prof. Dumbledore. 'This is it' I thought before saying _**"Lemon drops"**_ at which, the Gargoyles moved leading to a set of stairs that led to the Headmaster's office and knocked on the door.

'Knock, knock'

"Come in… Ah Ms. Thomas. Welcome, sit down. Would you like some Lemon drops?"

"_**No Thank you Headmaster. You asked to speak to me?"**_

"Yes, yes, Ms. Thomas, I wanted to know how exactly you got to know what's hidden in the chamber."

I breathed a sigh of relief, and started explaining to him everything about how we got to know about the Philosopher's stone, how I tried to prevent my friends from knowing about it, and how we all saved it.

Then came the questions I was most worried about, "Tell me Ms. Thomas, you were able to apparate inside of Hogwarts which is not possible. How did you do this?"

"_**Sir I had no Idea we were not allowed to. Please don't suspend me. I just…" **_"No Ms. Thomas, I am not punishing you for this, and I said it's not possible, I never said you are not allowed to. How long have you been able to apparate, and from when have you been able to cast the shield charm so flawlessly?"

I explained to Dumbledore how I learnt to apparate when I saw my mom do it a few times, and also that I was able to cast a shield the first time during Halloween. I explained to him what happened on my 7th birthday.

"The shield you say, hmmm… no wonder nobody has ever been able to read your mind. Tell me, have you ever been able to unconsciously read someone's mind without their knowing it?"

I nod, and tell him _**"I have been able to read other's minds if I just think about it, but I never try to use it unless absolutely an emergency."**_

He just nods his head and hoes deep into thought,

"_**Professor, may I ask you something?"**_

"Of course you may, I will try to answer it if I can"

"_**sir, all my life, I have heard first my mother, then the sorting hat, and then you look like you know something about this whole 'shield' issue. Please tell me what it means. Is it something bad sir?"**_

"Alas! You asked me something I cannot answer. Not now Ms. Thomas. You will definitely know when it is time and you are ready" I am sad that he doesn't answer me, but I believe him and know he will tell me in due time, so I just nod, he smiles and asks "Ms. Thomas, is there anything else you want to tell me?

"_**Yes sir, thank you. Thank you for believing me and taking me seriously when I said I needed help. Without you we would not be able to help Harry"**_

"Ms. Thomas, Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who need it" With that he stands up smiles and starts pacing the office.

"You may leave now Ms. Thomas."

The next day, we rushed to the Hospital wing as soon as we heard word that Harry was awake at last. We reached just as Dumbledore was leaving, "Good afternoon sir" we all chime, "Good afternoon to you. Harry is up, and I am sure Madame Pomfrey will let you in for a few minutes at least."

And she did, so we all rushed inside, to see Harry was awake in deed and looked a lot better.

"_Harry!" _

Hermione looked ready to fling her arms around him again, but Harry was glad she held herself in.

"_**Oh, Harry, we were not sure you were going to be alright…Dumbledore was so worried.. Am sorry I didn't come back for you sooner" **_

"The whole school's talking about it," said Ron. "What _really _happened?"

It was one of those rare occasions when the true story is even more strange and exciting than the wild rumors. Harry told us everything: Quirrell; the mirror; the Stone; and Voldemort. Ron and Hermione were a very good audience; they gasped in all the right places, and when Harry told them what was under Quirrell's turban, Hermione screamed out loud. Then he told us what Dumbledore told him, about how we both saved Harry.

"So the Stone's gone?" said Ron finally. "Flamel's just going to _die_?"

"That's what I said, but Dumbledore thinks that — what was it? — 'to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.'"

"I always said he was off his rocker," said Ron, looking quite impressed at how crazy his hero was.

"So what happened to you three?" said Harry.

"Well, I got back all right," said Hermione. "I brought Ron round — that took a while — and we were dashing up to the owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met Anne in the entrance hall, she asked me to bring Ron to the Hospital wing while she went to write to Dumbledore.

"Do you think he meant for you to do it?" said Ron. "Sending you your father's cloak and everything?"

"_Well_, " Hermione exploded, "if he did — I mean to say that's terrible — you could have been killed."

"No, it isn't," said Harry thoughtfully. "He's a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don't think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked. It's almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could…"

"Yeah, Dumbledore's off his rocker, all right," said Ron proudly. "Listen, you've got to be up for the end-of-year feast tomorrow. The points are all in and Slytherin won, of course — you missed the last Quidditch match, we were steamrollered by Ravenclaw without you — but the food will be good."

At that moment, Madam Pomfrey bustled over.

"You've had nearly fifteen minutes, now OUT" she said firmly.

It was the night of the End of the year feast, and we were worried Harry would be stocked up at the Hospital wing. The great hall was decked out in the Slytherin colors of green and silver to celebrate Slytherin's winning the house cup for the seventh year in a row. A huge banner showing the Slytherin serpent covered the wall behind the High Table.

At last Harry walked in, and there was a sudden hush, and then everybody started talking loudly at once. He slipped into a seat between Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table, gave me smile and a wave and tried to ignore the fact that people were standing up to look at him.

Fortunately, Dumbledore arrived moments later. The babble died away.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were… you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…

"Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table.

"Yes, Yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

The room went very still. The Slytherins' smiles faded a little.

"Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes…

"First — to Mr. Ronald Weasley…"

Ron went purple in the face; he looked like a radish with a bad sunburn.

"… for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Gryffindor cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver.

At last there was silence again.

"Second — to Miss Hermione Granger… for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Hermione buried her face in her arms; I am sure she had burst into tears. Gryffindors up and down the table were beside themselves — they were a hundred points up.

"Third — to Mr. Harry Potter…" said Dumbledore. The room went deadly quiet. "… for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points."

The din was deafening. Those who could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Gryffindor now had four hundred and seventy-two points — exactly the same as Slytherin. They had tied for the house cup — if only Dumbledore had given Harry just one more point.

Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent.

"Next, to Ms. Thomas, for being loyal to her friends, and for putting her life on the line for her friends, I award Ravenclaw fifty points"

Everyone at the Ravenclaw table clapped their hands. We were leading with four hundred and seventy six points. Finally Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued,

"There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."

Someone standing outside the Great Hall might well have thought some sort of explosion had taken place, so loud was the noise that erupted from the Gryffindor table. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood up to yell and cheer as Neville, white with shock, disappeared under a pile of people hugging him. He had never won so much as a point for Gryffindor before.

"Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, for even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were celebrating the downfall of Slytherin, "we need a little change of decoration."

He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. Severus was shaking Professor McGonagall's hand, with a forced smile.

We had almost forgotten that the exam results were still to come, but come they did. To their great surprise, both Harry and Ron passed with good marks; Hermione, of course, had the best grades of the first years, with me just half a mark behind her. Even Neville scraped through, his good Herbology mark making up for his abysmal Potions one. Every one of us had hoped that Goyle, who was almost as stupid as he was mean, might be thrown out, but he had passed, too. It was a shame, but as Ron said, you couldn't have everything in life.

And suddenly, it was the day we were to leave for home, our wardrobes were empty, trunks were packed, notes were handed out to all students, warning us not to use magic over the holidays ("I always hope they'll forget to give us these," said Fred Weasley sadly); Hagrid was there to take us down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake; we were boarding the Hogwarts Express; talking and laughing as the countryside became greener and tidier; eating Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as they sped past Muggle towns; pulling off our wizard robes and putting on jackets and coats; pulling into platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station.

It took quite a while for us all to get off the platform. A wizened old guard was up by the ticket barrier, letting us go through the gate in twos and threes so we didn't attract attention by all bursting out of a solid wall at once and alarming the Muggles.

"You must come and stay this summer," said Ron, "both of you… Umm, all three of you — I'll send you an owl."

"Thanks," said Harry, "I'll need something to look forward to." People jostled us as we moved forward toward the gateway back to the Muggle world. Some of them called:

"Bye, Harry!"

"See you, Potter!"

"Still famous," said Ron, grinning at Harry.

"Not where I'm going, I promise you," said Harry.

The four of us passed through the gateway together. "There he is, Mom, there he is, look!"

It was Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, but she wasn't pointing at Ron.

"Harry Potter!" she squealed. "Look, Mom! I can see —"

"Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point."

Mrs. Weasley smiled down at us.

"Busy year?" she said.

"Very," said Harry. "Thanks for the fudge and the sweater, Mrs. Weasley."

"_**Thank you for my Christmas gifts as well, Mrs. Weasley"**_

"Oh, it was nothing, dears."

"Ready, are you?" It was a Mean looking, purple-faced man, with a stiff mustache, looking furiously at Harry, his uncle Vernon. Behind him stood a scrawny and thin woman who was as equally mean looking as the man (maybe her husband) and a Round faced boy, who was terrified at the very sight of Harry His Aunt Petunia and Dudley. They looked meaner than Harry described them to be.

"You must be Harry's family!" said Mrs. Weasley.

"In a manner of speaking," said the man. "Hurry up, boy, we haven't got all day." He walked away.

Harry hung back for a last word with Ron, Hermione and me.

"See you over the summer, then."

"Hope you have — er — a good holiday," said Hermione, looking uncertainly after Uncle Vernon, shocked that anyone could be so unpleasant.

"Oh, I will," said Harry, and we were surprised at the grin that was spreading over his face. "_They _don't know we're not allowed to use magic at home. I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer…"

I waited till everybody left, before going through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. There was Drake waiting for me. As soon as I came out, he started huffing and said he waited very long for me. He was in a really foul mood because Slytherin lost, and that too to Gryffindor.

We went home in a carriage Luc sent for us. So typical of Luc, always too busy with work to even take some time out to come meet us.

This is going to be a very long, long, summer.

I looked back to see Ron getting into a car along with all his family, Fred and George teasing him and Ginny, Percy proudly showing something to his mother. Mione was right beside them, talking to her mother and father, who were hugging her, and then her mother started talking to Mrs. Weasley.

'_I am going to miss you my friends…_

_Farewell…_

_For now…'_

I say before turning back to Drake and getting into the carriage.

**A/N: So there it is guys, the last chapter in the first book.**

**Hope y'all liked it. Let me know what you think of this. I will be writing the second book if I get good response. So please let me know if you think I should continue writing. If yes please comment.**

**Waiting for your feedbacks.**


	15. Not a Chapter,

p style="margin-bottom: .14in; line-height: 115%;"Hey you lovely people,/p  
p style="margin-bottom: .14in; line-height: 115%;"I am so sorry for not updating the next in series. I know nothing would be a good enough excuse and I owe you at least the truth. The thing is, I recently finished my internship at an engineering firm, finishing up with the final semester of my MBA (Projects), and just joined a new company… Whew! I am officially a full time Job holder! To be frank all this adult stuff is so new to me.. 9 hour work shifts, coming home and working on my MBA project and I don't even have time for social life../p  
p style="margin-bottom: .14in; line-height: 115%;"But in all this chaos, I do have some good news. I have decided to finish what I started and do it as envisioned and not halfheartedly. I have no definite schedule as of now, but I am working on the first few chapters of the part 2 for "The Shield" series. Please bear with my new schedule, mostly planning on getting a few chapters ready now, and then getting at least one chapter written and uploaded, every week or every other week./p  
p style="margin-bottom: .14in; line-height: 115%;"Watch out for the next part in the series. I have had some friends review the story (Of course fellow potterheads) and they said this is very very very similiar to the Canon except for a few subtle changes. This was done purposefully, I do not wish to strip the Potterverse of it's Identity completely. I wanted the basic backstory and such to remain same for Harry, but my story is about how a few small changes in the beginning can change the story, it is up to you to find out if it is for the better or for the worse. And as one of my friend pointed out, this is a Mary Sue-ish story, Yes, But that is the point of fanfiction, to write your own twist in a already created/existing world. This next series is where all the changes start and you will clearly see the path of my Fanfiction deviating from canon./p  
p style="margin-bottom: .14in; line-height: 115%;" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: .14in; line-height: 115%;"Love Y'all!/p  
p style="margin-bottom: .14in; line-height: 115%;"Send some prayers my way as I settle into my new job and work on finishing my project./p 


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